Bangladesh has officially launched the World Health Organization’s (WHO) SPECS 2030 Initiative, marking a major step towards expanding access to quality, affordable and people-centred eye care services across the country.
State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr M A Muhit launched the initiative at a function held at a city hotel on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, he said the government is planning to establish dedicated outpatient, inpatient and operating theatre facilities for eye care at the 151-bed hospitals being constructed at upazila level.
He said the government is also finalising an integrated National Eye Care Plan, targeting around one million cataract surgeries, distribution of several crore pairs of spectacles and expanded treatment for diabetic retinopathy.
“We are committed to taking modern eye-care services to the grassroots,” Dr Muhit said, adding that nearly 500 upazilas will eventually have access to advanced eye-care facilities so that people do not have to travel to district towns or Dhaka for treatment.
He said primary eye care would be incorporated into the training of around 100,000 health workers currently under the government’s recruitment process. The government also plans to strengthen regular cataract surgery and refraction services in at least half of the country’s districts by coordinating existing district hospital infrastructure, he added.
Dr Muhit said the government has been coordinating with international and local organisations over the past six months to strengthen and expand eye-care services. “We want to bring about a transformational positive change in the country’s eye-care sector within the next three to four years,” he said.
The WHO SPECS 2030 Initiative, introduced globally in May 2024, seeks to improve access to refractive error services worldwide. It supports countries in achieving the first global target for refractive error endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2021, a 40-percentage-point increase in effective refractive error coverage (eREC) by 2030.
Orbis International Bangladesh played a key coordinating and convening role in bringing together government, WHO and other eye-health stakeholders and helped drive the process towards the national launch of the initiative.
At the launch, WHO and government representatives stressed that addressing the existing gaps would require an integrated approach involving primary healthcare, trained personnel, referral systems, affordable spectacles, reliable data and stronger collaboration among government, WHO, NGOs, professional bodies, development partners and the private sector.
Sheikh Momena Moni, Additional Secretary of the Health Services Division, said Bangladesh is committed to strengthening an integrated eye-care system and increasing effective refractive error coverage towards 2030. She highlighted school-based vision screening and access to spectacles for children, as well as services for workers and underserved populations.
The launch was preceded by a presentation on the global, regional and country perspectives of the SPECS 2030 Initiative by Dr Tashi Tobgay, Regional Adviser and Unit Head for NCD, Mental Health and Disabilities at WHO South-East Asia Region. Prof Dr ASMM Quadir, Director (In charge), National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIO&H), and Dr Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed, WHO Representative to Bangladesh, also addressed the launching event.
After the launch, a panel discussion titled “Strengthening Eye Care Services with Specific Focus on Refractive Error and WHO SPECS 2030 Implementation in Bangladesh” was conducted by Dr Munir Ahmed, Country Director of Orbis International Bangladesh and Honorary Country Chair for Bangladesh of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
Panelists Max Tunon, ILO Country Director for Bangladesh; Rajesh Narwal, WHO Deputy Representative to Bangladesh; Indra Prasad Sharma, Regional Officer for South-East Asia, IAPB; and Johurul Islam Jewel, Senior Programme Manager, CSF Global, highlighted the need for workplace eye health, evidence-based policymaking, stronger workforce capacity, affordable spectacle provision and coordinated action across sectors.
The SPECS 2030 framework is built around five strategic pillars and seeks to bring governments, professional associations, NGOs, academic institutions and the private sector together to expand access to refractive error services.
The launch of the initiative is expected to provide a national framework for coordinating these efforts and developing an implementation roadmap towards the 2030 global target.
