Costing inclusive eye health, Bhopal

• To estimate the resources needed for improving access for people with disabilities and other marginalised groups to eye health services, as well as strengthening the health system to make it more inclusive.

Sightsavers piloted an inclusive eye health (IEH) initiative in Bhopal, India. It was launched in January 2016  in the context of the Urban Eye Care Programme and ran until June 2017 (the Urban Eye Care Programme ended in 2018). The initiative involved one tertiary eye hospital and six primary vision centres located within urban informal settlements (three private and three government facilities), along with outreach camps.

The cost of including people with disabilities and other marginalised groups in services remains a concern as very few studies estimate the direct costs of inclusion, which impedes understanding and action. Thus, the pilot intended to serve as a test model that could eventually be replicated in all future Sightsavers programmes, and made available to other health stakeholders, such as governments and local and international NGOs, and for estimating the cost of inclusion based on NGO-implemented programme expenditures.