Establish a benchmark against which to plan for and measure progress in eye health and vision care
New Zealand’s eye health policy, planning and programmes should be supported by high-quality research and data collection systems. But New Zealand has no formal data on the prevalence or causation of vision loss. Other countries like Australia have strategies, policies and frameworks that give them up-to-date representative data on eye health conditions. As a result, New Zealand also has no comprehensive eye health strategies, policies or frameworks to plan for and measure progress in eye health and vision care. The first step in correcting this is to get truly representative and current New Zealand population-based data on the prevalence and causes of vision impairment.