Dear HIFA colleagues,
I invite you to consider Q5. What international guidance is available from WHO and other international bodies? How is national policy developed and implemented?
WHO is a leader in international guidelines for policy and practice. Such guidelines are developed rigorously, typically starting with a systematic review of the literature. Global guidelines are intended for adaptation and use to develop national guidance.
We have learned that cataract surgery is one of the most inequitable areas of global health, with some countries having easy access to cutting-edge, high-quality care, while many people in other countries have no access to cataract surgery at all, and are left needlessly blind for life.
WHO provides evidence-based recommendations in its 'Summary of recommendations for quality of care in cataract surgery management' to improve clinical standards and support the global goal of increasing effective cataract surgery coverage by 30-percentage points by 2030. This has only recently been published (February 2026).
The publication may be freely downloaded here: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240121089
Here is an overview:
'The Summary of recommendations for quality of care in cataract surgery management, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), provides practical, evidence-based and expert-agreed recommendations for improving the quality of cataract surgery across the three main phases of cataract surgery management: preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative.
'As part of WHO’s broader efforts to strengthen eye health systems, this resource contributes to achieving the global target of increasing effective coverage of cataract surgery by 30-percentage points by 2030. This document serves as a resource to support Member States when planning for establishing or expanding coverage of high-quality cataract services. The set of recommendations presented in this document are drawn from published evidence; they reflect the current existing clinical practice guidelines and are practical and applicable.
'The target audience for this resource includes governments involved in planning for the delivery of quality eye care services. Other potential end-users include: i) policy-makers and health-care planners document to plan for quality cataract surgery services at national and subnational levels; ii) eye care service providers to put into action the recommendations on a facility level; iii) eye care and allied health professionals to verify or align the care provided with standardized, evidence-based clinical care; and iv) donors and development agencies when supporting cataract services provision in low- and intermediate-resource settings.'
The resource was developed by Doaa Sobeih, Silvio Paolo Mariotti, Stuart Keel, Andreas Mueller and Vera Carneiro of the Vision and Eye Care Programme, WHO. They were supported by a technical working group of more than 20 experts as well as a similar number of external reviewers. We would very much welcome any comments from those involved.
The publication has only been available for less than a year, but we would be grateful for inputs from cataract surgeons, other health professionals and policymakers at country level. Do the recommendations work for your setting and how might you use them to adapt policy and practice?
What other publications relating to cataract surgery are available from WHO or from other organisations? What is the role of WHO in providing guidance on cataract surgery as compared with other international specialist organisations? What are the challenges with regards to usability and uptake?
We look forward to your comments. Email to: hifa@hifaforums.org
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org