New report analyses markets for eyeglasses, hearing aids, prostheses, wheelchairs, and digital assistive technology, outlining solutions to improve cost and availability.
Market failures prevent almost one billion people from accessing the assistive products they need, including eyeglasses, hearing aids, prostheses, wheelchairs, and digital assistive technology.
However, a new report by ATscale, the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), launched today, aims to address some of these failures. The report provides a one-stop guide to assistive products for buyers, donors, and policymakers.
Launched on June 4, the first ever World Day for Assistive Technology, the report aims to help enhance the availability of affordable, high-quality assistive products in low- and middle-income countries.
It consolidates a significant amount of market information in one place, providing procurement officials in low- and middle-income countries with information about the availability of assistive products, including their technical specifications, reference prices, and key manufacturers.
Thus, the report empowers and enables these buyers to make better-informed procurement decisions. It also points out market failures such as trade barriers, technological inequalities, inefficient supply chains, and lack of information.
These market failures cause high prices and explain why assistive products are available in low-income countries for just 10 percent of the people that need them. In high-income countries, this figure is closer to 90 percent.
The report also provides actionable insights on the most dynamic Assistive Technology markets:
- Drop trade tariffs
- Reduce transport costs
- Support ATscale, UNICEF and other non-profit interventions
- Adopt national guidelines in line with WHO recommendations
