IAPB Launches 2026 World Sight Day Campaign

The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) has officially launched this year's World Sight Day campaign, calling on the global eye health sector to rally behind the #LoveYourEyes movement as it enters its sixth year.

World Sight Day will fall on 8 October 2026, and this year's campaign puts personal stories and community action front and centre, following on from five years of steadily growing global engagement.

According to IAPB, the campaign has so far secured more than 25 million pledges to Love Your Eyes and generated over 1 billion media impressions since it began. This year's push includes a stated goal of reaching five million new pledges alone.

Three pillars of activation

IAPB is asking member organisations, practitioners and partners to get involved through three main initiatives:

• Every Story Counts, which invites people to share personal experiences of vision loss and eye care, building what IAPB describes as a collective voice too significant to ignore.
• 5 Million Pledges to #LoveYourEyes, the campaign's flagship call to action, asking individuals to pledge support for accessible eye care.
• The Global Challenge, which asks the sector to run vision screenings in schools, workplaces and parliaments. IAPB is backing this with expanded resources, including updated Love Your Eyes Kids materials for schools and carers, and new Love Your Eyes at Work resources aimed at helping employers build vision protection into workplace health practices.

Timed ahead of the Global Summit for Eye Health

This year's campaign carries added significance, arriving in the lead-up to the first-ever Global Summit for Eye Health, scheduled for 2 November 2026 in Antigua and Barbuda.

Simon Darvill, IAPB's Director of Communications, Campaigns and Events, said the timing was deliberate, noting the campaign lands as countries finalise their commitments ahead of the Summit. He described this year's World Sight Day as more than a celebration of progress, framing it instead as a chance to build momentum toward lasting change on avoidable sight loss, and encouraged the sector to take part in what he called its biggest day of collective action and public engagement.

Broad sector backing

World Sight Day is led by IAPB and championed by more than 250 member organisations worldwide. The campaign is backed by a roster of Love Your Eyes Global Partners spanning industry, philanthropy and NGO sectors, including AbbVie, Bayer, Hoya Vision Care, CooperVision, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Roche, Santen, Safilo, National Vision, and eye health organisations such as The Fred Hollows Foundation, Sightsavers, Orbis International, CBM, Seva Foundation, Cure Blindness Project, RestoringVision, VisionSpring, and The Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation.

Getting involved

Eye care professionals, practices and organisations wanting to take part can access campaign toolkits, screening resources and planning materials via iapb.world, where IAPB is encouraging early planning ahead of the October date.

With five months to go until World Sight Day and just under four months until the Global Summit for Eye Health, IAPB is positioning 2026 as a critical year for translating pledges and public engagement into concrete government commitments on eye care funding and access.