COMMUNITY EYE HEALTH JOURNAL | VOLUME 31 | NUMBER 102 | 2018 37 Investment in human resources improves eye health for all Trainees learn about OCT machines. INDIA ARAVIND EYE CARE SYSTEM A qualifed ophthalmic nurse instils eye drops. GHANA ZUL MUKHIDA / SIGHTSAVERS Eye Health Community J ournal VOLUME 31 • NUMBER 102 • 2018 There is a widening gap between the need for eye health workers and their availability in low-income countries. Change will come once governments recognise the health workforce as a productive investment, not an expense. W orldwide, we face a substantial and widening gap between the number and types of health workers needed to provide essential services, and both their availability, and governments’ capacity to employ them. This is especially true in low- and middle-income countries. In order to achieve universal health coverage, including meeting the needs of a growing and ageing population, an estimated 54.5 million health workers will be required by 2030. In low-income countries, this means the supply of health workers will have to increase by 40%. 1 In eye health, the situation is much the same. A paper published by the Vision Loss Expert Group 2 forecasts that there will be close to a three-fold increase in the number of people with visual impairment over 35 years: from 252 million in 2015 to 702 million in 2050. This threatens to overwhelm existing levels of service provision. It will be a challenge to train and deploy a sufcient number of eye health workers. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is currently only half the minimum number of eye health professionals recommended by the World Health Organization. A paradigm shift Governments must recognise the health workforce as a productive investment instead of an expense. 3 The objectives set out in WHO’s Global Strategy on Continues overleaf ➤ Daksha Patel E-learning Director: International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. Suzanne Gilbert Senior Director: Innovation & Sight Programs, Seva Foundation, Berkeley, California USA.