The global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness - vision 2020: the right to sight.

The Global Initiative — Vision 2020: The Right to Sight was officially launched on 18 February 1999 with the endorsement of Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General, World Health Organization. The mission of Vision 2020 is to eliminate the main causes of blindness in order to give all people of the world, particularly the millions of needlessly blind, the right to sight by the year 2020. In the Journal of Community Eye Health, Volume 11, 1998, Dr Bjorn Thylefors, Director, Disability/Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation, World Health Organization,describedthemainemphases of the Global Initiative and the significant cooperation with the Task Force of the Partnership Committee of Collaborating Non-Governmental Organizations. Other authors who have written for us on the Global Initiative are Dr R Pararajasegaram, President, IAPB; Mr Richard B Porter, Executive Director, Sight Savers International and Rev Christian Garms, Executive Director, Christian Blind Mission International. Priority needs focus on three broad categories: