CONTACT: Radhika Francis
Essilor India
91 80 2228 6066/88 ext. 122
contactus@essilorindia.com
Third International Forum UNESCO / Essilor International
« Vision and Development : Speeding up for the Next Milestones »
CHARENTON - (October 10th, 2006)
Background :
At the beginning of 2000, the Spanish subsidiary of Essilor International decided to participate in the
financing over three years of a UNESCO chair linked to the Polytechnical University of Catalonia in
Barcelona.
In 2003, this chair, located at the Optometry school of Terrassa organized with Essilor Spain the first
International Congress for the development of visual health.
From this congress, which gathered eye care professionals from around the world, the idea of giving the
local chair greater international resonance was born.
In October 2004, on the occasion of the World Sight Day, the first International Forum UNESCO /
Essilor International « Vision and Development » was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris,
France.
The success of this event has led the two partners to continue the program and to hold it in areas other
than Paris. So, UNESCO and Essilor International decided to organize the second International Forum
UNESCO / Essilor International « Vision and Development » in Dakar, Senegal, where UNESCO has its
regional office for Education in Africa ( BREDA ). It was held again on the occasion of the 2005 World
Sight Day.
Reasons for the Forum :
The promotion of « Education For All » is a key mission of UNESCO. It is also the second of the eight
Millennium goals established by the UN. Reaching the objective of Education For All is not possible
without the access to good eyesight.
Essilor International’s signature, « Seeing the World better », pretty well defines the mission of the
Group. It consists in offering quality ophthalmic lenses and quality services to eye care professionals
worldwide.
Considering these synergies, UNESCO and Essilor International have decided to combine their efforts
in creating the International Forum UNESCO / Essilor International, « Vision and Development ».
An area of exchange, this Forum gathers education specialists and eye care professionals in an effort to
imagine tomorrow’s solutions for the improvement of education for the visually impaired through access
to a good sight.
The first Forum, titled « Vision and Development: let’s change our perception », introduced the obvious
and natural correlation between education, vision and development.
The second Forum, « Vision and Development: quality of education and quality of providing access to
visual health » focused on all aspects involving quality in the role of both education professionals and
eye care professionals. It reminded them about the necessity to keep both missions of education and
vision under a strict professional control and away from the « informal economy ».
This year, the third International Forum UNESCO Essilor International « Vision and Development »
will insist on the need to accelerate the programs targeting the eradication of avoidable blindness by the
year 2020, therefore its title « Speeding up for the Next Milestones ».
The Forum’s objectives :
Increase awareness amongst participants that the promotion of education for everyone passes through
the promotion of vision screenings, eye exams and vision correction.
Think together and act decisively in order to continuously improve the existing programs and implement
them in a timely manner.
What we would like participants to remember :
A country’s development goes through the access to Education For All and consequently through the
access to screenings, eye exams and vision correction.
The operational aspects regarding visual screening, eye exams and crafting of frame and lenses are not
complex to put in place.
At a given development stage, any given country will feel the need to carry out vision screenings of its
population (in the paediatric domain, in the schools, at work, for driver’s licence, for selection in the
army or other jobs).
Education professionals and eye care professionals ultimately participate in the economic development
of their country.
In the area of visual health, ophthalmic lenses represent an easy and cost effective form of visual
correction which results into instant good vision and its related benefits.
Up to the present time, a large majority of traditional humanitarian missions in the field of eye care have
not allowed the creation of economically viable and sustainable models. Teaching eye care to future eye
care professionals who will serve their fellow citizens is obviously better and more sustainable than any
one shot give away of old or new frames.
The support of enterprises or even micro-enterprises based on economic efficiency guarantees auto-
sufficiency and sustainability.