Near Vision & Eyeglasses

One billion people in the developing world live with vision impairment that could be corrected. Approximately 800 million simply need a $1.50 pair of reading glasses.

Solutions Insights Lab conducted more than 100 in-depth interviews with pharmacists, community health workers and other providers to document what’s working to get glasses to those who need them. This project includes sharing research findings directly with providers and understanding how those insights impact the distribution and uptake of reading glasses.

We distilled high-level insights about what’s working to get reading glasses to those who need them. Highlights include the importance of marketing campaigns that demedicalize reading glasses, the role of government partnerships and how to price eyeglasses to increase uptake.

In addition, we created systems maps focused on the specific ways that pharmacies and community health workers are connecting people with eyeglasses. We dug beneath the surface to trace the impact of recurring trends, underlying rules and relationships and beliefs and assumptions in these contexts on eyeglass distribution and uptake.

Sept. 23, 2025 – “Seeing the Last Mile: Community-Driven Strategies to Close Africa’s Presbyopia Gap” at Spotlight Africa in New York, New York

Sept. 22, 2025 – “Seeing Clearly: Philanthropy and Innovation to Close the Vision Gap” in New York, New York

Apr. 3, 2025 – “Storytelling for Systems Change” at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, United Kingdom

Oct. 28-30, 2024 – SOCAP24 in San Francisco, California

Sept. 24, 2024 – Site Launch in New York, New York