HRH links eye health to gender equity at UN

Her Royal Highness (HRH) the Duchess of Edinburgh delivered a keynote speech at a United Nations (UN) Friends of Vision group meeting titled ‘No woman left behind – closing the gender gap in eye health to achieve the SDGs’.

Addressing UN ambassadors and agency staff, the Duchess emphasised that improving eye health, particularly for women and girls, was crucial to advancing gender equity. 

Jennifer Gersbeck, executive director of Influence and Scaling Impact at the Fred Hollows Foundation, added: ‘Women and girls make up 55% of the world’s blind and vision impaired, yet when they can’t access the eye care they need, it entrenches them further in poverty.’