Women Empowerment through Investing in Zanzibari Craftswomen’s Eyesight (WE-ZACE)

The project aims to understand the relationship between correcting presbyopia among older craftswomen and their economic and social empowerment. The research will generate evidence to inform the development of effective policies, planning and resource allocation for women’s eye health and ensure women’s health receives increased stakeholder attention through evidence dissemination. 

Not a single low- and middle- income country (LMIC) is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. Women in LMICs are over-represented in informal and vulnerable employment – 7.8% higher than that of men. With 23% of Zanzibari women headed a household, they supported an average of nine unemployed persons in the household.4 Furthermore, 44% of women-heads had no education. Hence, many of them participated in home industry to generate income (craftswomen) – economic activities that are heavily dependent on good near vision. However, the prevalence of presbyopia in Zanzibar was high but eyeglasses coverage was low. 

 This project aims to understand if correcting presbyopia among craftswomen 40 years and older can lead to economic, social and political empowerment. Other objectives include 

a. Determining the financial, institutional and infrastructural resources required for a craftswomen’s refractive error programme and  

b. Determine the number of craftswomen screened, the number who failed screening and the number of presbyopic craftswomen corrected with spectacles 

c. Determine the spectacle usage and compliance among the craftswomen 

Start Date: October 2022