Annex 2: NGOs, social enterprises and corporate foundations included in the report
International Christian development organization committed to improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities in the poorest countries of the world. It has an Inclusive Health Initiative with programmes focusing on strengthening eye health, ear and hearing care and physical rehabilitation globally. CBM provides funding to local partner organizations, which are responsible for procurement.
In 2023 CBM was active in 40 countries, supported 379 projects, worked with 257 partners and reached 10.4 million persons:
Non-profit foundation founded by the Sonova Group in 2006 registered in Switzerland. HTWF supports children in low- and middle-income countries who require access to audiological care. HTWF envisions a world where every child can hear well and live a life without barriers. Together with its partners, HTWF improves access to hearing care for children and drives systemic change. HTWF provides quality and sustainable audiological care to children in need through three interconnected focus areas: raising awareness, enabling access and training and capacity development.
Currently active in 13 countries:
HTWF donates Sonova technology. This refers to Phonak, Hansaton and Unitron programmable behind the ear digital hearing aids, bone conduction hearing systems - Bruckoff bone conduction hearing systems, Advanced Bionics Cochlear Implants and Phonak Roger technology.
4The primary goal of the International Humanitarian Hearing Aid Purchasing programme (IHHAPP), managed by Mayflower Medical Outreach, is to improve accessibility to hearing aids for humanitarian organizations that support hearing healthcare in low-resource settings globally. Qualified humanitarian programmes and not-for-profit organizations with established relationships in the countries they serve can procure hearing aids through IHHAPP at negotiated prices.
IHHAPP members currently provide services across 14 countries:
Provide procurement services to governments and development partners on strategic essential supplies. Besides supplying UNICEF programmes, the UNICEF supply division undertakes procurement on behalf of governments, other UN agencies and NGOs.
5Supplying to over 190 countries
Non-profit organization dedicated to providing access to affordable hearing aids for children and youth in developing countries. World Wide Hearing designs and runs last- mile hearing aid distribution programmes to ensure that children have access to the critical hearing care they need.
WWH is currently active in:
An NGO that provides prosthetic limbs, orthotic braces and wheelchairs to children with disabilities in developing countries. It donates these products to local partners, who handle fittings and services, offering prostheses free of charge to end customers. The organization’s mission is to offer children who have lost their limbs in traumatic accidents or suffer from congenital disabilities the physical capabilities to access the opportunities and self-esteem earned through education, work and mobility.
Currently ALTSO covers 11 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and is looking for new local partners around the world, especially in Latin America.
| Country | City | Partner |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | Kabul | Kabul Orthopedic Organization |
| Bangladesh | Dhaka | Impact Foundation Bangladesh |
| Cambodia | Phnom Penh | Exceed Worldwide |
| India | Ahmedabad | GetBak |
| Indonesia | Denpasar | Puspani Bli |
| Laos | Vientiane | Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise |
| Nepal | Gulmi | Hope Disability Centre |
| Pakistan | Lahore | Pakistan Society for Rehabilitation of Differently Abled |
| Romania | Bragadiru | Motivation Romania |
| Somaliland | Hargeisa | Diversity Action Network |
ALTSO conducts regular factory visits to its prostheses manufacturer to assess quality.
CURE’s mission is to provide the highest standard of surgical care to the world’s most vulnerable children. It envisions a world where children living with disabilities reach their full potential. CURE International operates charitable children's hospitals and provides medical care to paediatric patients with orthopaedic, reconstructive plastic and neurological conditions.
CURE operates eight non-profit children's hospitals around the world, but prostheses procurement mainly occurs in Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia for now.
Before 2024, each hospital managed its own prostheses procurement. To streamline the procurement process and lower the costs, a new central procurement team has just been established in the United States to procure and distribute supplies. The team aims to predict procurement volumes six months in advance for all hospitals and conduct centralized procurement.
CURE aims to purchase more functional products than those typically available through humanitarian aid in their programme countries. Specifically for knee joints, the team is seeking products with higher functionality and lower weight to provide better mobility for children.
8An independent and impartial aid organization that works alongside people with disabilities and individuals experiencing extreme hardship. As part of their work, HI supports the provision of mobility assistive products, including prostheses, through local partners across the world.
Operates in 60 countries and runs rehabilitation programmes in 42 of them.
HI leverages technical specifications from multiple sources listed below. The organization's representative mentioned that the publicly available WHO and INGO guidelines are sufficient to support their procurement work and to help them develop their own preferred specifications.
The ICRC established the Physical Rehabilitation Programme (PRP) in 1979, dedicated to providing physical rehabilitation services to people with disabilities. The PRP has developed its own in-house technology for prostheses, built local service centres for long-term support and committed to advancing the social inclusion of people with disabilities.
Since its establishment, the PRP has supported more than 300 projects in over 100 countries, benefiting over two million people with disabilities in rehabilitation. The PRP prioritized the provision of rehabilitation services and the development of local
10capacities at all levels to ensure the long-term sustainability of the physical rehabilitation sector.
The PRP currently operates in 28 countries listed below, down from 42 in 2022. 1
ICRC has further quality control procedures to ensure products meet the CE/ISO requirements they specify.
1.Updated by ICRC in 2024. ↩︎
ROMP’s mission is to ensure access to high-quality prosthetic care for underserved individuals, improving their mobility and independence. They operate ROMP clinics in programme countries to provide prosthetic care.
ROMP uses the FDA and ISO standards to assess product quality and does not conduct additional inspections.
12An Australian organization that focuses on strengthening eye health care systems by working with government and NGO partners. Its vision is to collaborate to enable vision for everyone, everywhere. The Foundation contributes primarily through three pillars: “human resources”, “affordable technology” and “sustainable infrastructure”. The Foundation is dedicated to eliminating uncorrected refractive errors (both myopia and presbyopia) and avoidable blindness. Only a few additional surgical services and low vision projects are operated.
For uncorrected refractive error projects, the Foundation dispenses partially or fully subsidized spectacles as part of its eye health services. In countries like Pakistan, they offer discounts for those facing financial difficulties, while in underserved countries like Papua New Guinea all spectacles are provided free of charge.
The Foundation works in New South Wales and the Northern Territory in Australia, as well as in disadvantaged districts and regions of partner countries, including:
Due to the lack of resources in local optical labs, further assessing the product quality remains a challenge for organizations like Brien Holden. The organization typically visits the supplier's factory or company before proceeding with a deal and tries to have in- house equipment to test the quality of sample products beforehand.
International Christian development organization committed to improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities in the poorest countries of the world. It has an Inclusive Health Initiative with programmes focusing on strengthening eye health, ear and hearing care and physical rehabilitation globally. CBM provides funding to local partner organizations responsible for procurement.
14CBM is now active in 40 countries. A detailed country list can be found in Annex 2 (Hearing Aids Section) of this report.
CBM used to conduct centralized procurement for its global programmes but no longer has a Central Procurement Unit. As a result, procurement is now carried out directly by each country's local programme partner. These partners follow general selection criteria, which include:
The commonly used technical criteria are:
The programme partners generally procure in line with their respective national standards, so CBM does not conduct additional quality checks on the spectacles.
Fred Hollows is a global NGO that partners with governments and local communities to build strong, sustainable eye health systems across 25 countries. Its mission is to ensure that everyone, no matter where they live, has access to high-quality, affordable eye care. The organization primarily works with local government or NGO partners to deliver refractive error services to the community. These services include screening, examinations, prescriptions and the dispensing of spectacles, which are provided in both static and mobile facilities.
15A quality inspection is always conducted at the port of entry for imports by the revenue authorities and the pharmacy and poisons board inspectors. Suppliers are required to
16provide this inspection report to Fred Hollows and submit to them a sample or a random selection of spectacles for examination. The inspection scope includes but is not limited to:
Light for the World contributes to improving health systems, enabling education for all, and amplifying the voices of people with disabilities in the workplace and beyond. One of its priorities is saving eyesight worldwide. It promotes eye health by undertaking the following:
Light for the World uses the IAPB valued supplier list to select suppliers. In addition, they accept in-kind donations from global suppliers and source directly from local suppliers and Chinese wholesalers.
Light for the World seeks high-quality optical products and refers to ISO standards for quality. It is worth noting that they only seek clinically viable products. For example, they do not provide spectacles for very mild myopia to ensure their budget is used for people in genuine need, rather than simply aiming for a higher volume of spectacles to be delivered.
17They do not conduct quality inspections or audits before procurement but do supervision on-site.
A global NGO dedicated to helping children and families in need. In eye health, they provide vision screenings, eye exams and prescription spectacles for vulnerable children and adults.
Helen Keller International helps children and families in 20 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States, reaching 73 million people worldwide. Most of its country’s programmes currently focus on nutrition. Its work in eye health, specifically on refractive error, is now mainly concentrated in three countries:
Bangladesh:
Cameroon:
For both country programmes, procurement is from established vendors, e.g. EssilorLuxottica’s 2.5NVG, who have their own rigorous product quality checks during manufacturing. At the time of dispensing, on-site verification of power and fitting is done by trained local teams.
Restoring Vision is an NGO dedicated to empowering lives by restoring vision for millions of people in need. They run vision and spectacles delivery programmes with more than 2,700 NGO and government partners worldwide, over 95 per cent of the spectacles delivered by them are near-vision spectacles for presbyopia.
The organization focuses on providing people in need with their first pair of near-vision spectacles free of charge to raise awareness about the product and improve productivity. It primarily purchases spectacles directly from their contract manufacturer and distributes them through local partners. Besides, they also help donate spectacles from partners like Vision Catalyst Fund in Peru and India.
Since 2003, RestoringVision programmes have been implemented in 147 countries. (Please note the countries listed below are not exhaustive and they are listed in alphabetical order)
Currently, they procure from only one contract supplier, FSV, which manufactures in China. They have a long-term discounted pricing agreement with the supplier, given its charitable nature and significant volume.
If there is a need to select additional suppliers, they mainly consider the following factors:
No specific criteria are being used now as they have already established a trustworthy long-term partnership with the manufacturer.
Seva Foundation is a global eye care nonprofit whose mission is to transform lives and strengthen communities by restoring sight and preventing blindness.
Seva Foundation works closely with local partners and hospitals in 20 countries around the world.
Seva Foundation works through their implementing partners. Most partner hospitals maintain competitive bidding processes and hold contracts with suppliers.
Partner Hospitals maintain internal standards that are compliant with local government regulations.
Sightsavers' programmes began in Africa in the 1950s. Its goal is to prevent avoidable blindness, fight disease and ensure equality for everyone. Sightsavers works to prevent sight loss and avoidable blindness in some of the poorest parts of the world by treating conditions such as cataracts and uncorrected refractive errors. It collaborates with
21governments and local, national and international partners to carry out eye operations and distribute treatments where needed. Additionally, it focuses on working with ministries of health and education and advocating for the inclusion of eye health in insurance schemes.
Sightsavers now operates in more than 30 countries across Africa and Asia. A total of 19 currently have eye health programmes, and 3 more are in the programme design process.
The organization has its own procurement guidelines, with a centralized procurement system that conducts quarterly purchases of spectacles. When selecting suppliers, they consider the following criteria:
The procurement is usually conducted through a public RFP process. They have technical leads and advisors, including ophthalmologists and optometrists, who oversee the specific technical requirements for each procurement, primarily referring to WHO guidelines.
Sightsavers procures from well-established global brands which are ISO-certified.
The quality of projects run by Sightsavers is measured with the organization’s Quality Standards Assessment Tool. Quality Standards Assessments of Refractive Error projects include inspecting the models and available stock of spectacles to ensure that frames are available in different gender and age-appropriate specifications. Financial support systems and clinical records are also reviewed to ensure that spectacles are dispensed correctly, affordable and accessible to people in the lowest income groups.
A social enterprise provides affordable, quality spectacles, vision screening and training for non-profits, government agencies and corporate clients. The mission is to increase lifelong learning, learning, safety and well-being through spectacles for people vulnerable to poverty (living on less than US$4 a day).
Momentum Wheels for Humanity’s mission is to promote greater inclusion for people with disabilities globally, through three programmatic pillars:
Consolidating Logistics for Assistive Technology Supply and Provision (CLASP) was launched with USAID-funding and is implemented by Momentum Wheels for Humanity. CLASP consolidates mobility assistive products, self-care products and related accessories from a diverse range of suppliers/manufacturers at a third-party logistics provider in Shanghai and sells to customers (distributors, government, NGOs, international organizations) globally with a focus on low and middle-income countries. CLASP also responds to tenders.
Through CLASP and other programme activities, MWH’s work has reached over 60 countries including the following ones:
The products in CLASP catalogue have been approved by the PAC, an independent council of clinical experts, technical experts and wheelchair users who review product
25documentation (detailed technical specifications, user/assembly manual, and standardized quality test result), ISO test results (ISO 7176) and business suitability (manufacturing capabilities). PAC also conducts an in-person evaluation to assess product usability, functionality, safety and quality. The PAC has evaluated products through invitation to bids and by directly sourcing products needed to fill catalogue gaps or to meet customer demands.
Non-profit organization that provides humanitarian protection and assistance to those suffering the devastating effects of armed conflict. Under the rehabilitation programme, started in 1979, ICRC produces high-quality assistive and mobility devices at low cost and its mission is development of comprehensive rehabilitation and professional trainings to ensure the sustainability of services provision along with manufacturing assistive technologies.
ICRC has physical rehabilitation projects in 28 countries with key operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. A detailed country list can be found in the Prostheses section of this annex.
Non-profit organization that designs and manufactures wheelchairs appropriate to need in LMICs. They then ship it to their distribution partners who are also trained by FWM in wheelchair provision, assembly, maintenance and use.
26FWM is actively distributing in 33 countries and has distributed over 1.4 million wheelchairs since 2001.
Social enterprise which designs, manufactures and sells mobility and sports products globally. Motivation’s charity supports the development of the wheelchair provision and disability inclusion ecosystem in the countries in which they work and advocates globally for disability inclusion. Profit from the social enterprise is fed back into the charity to fuel our mission towards greater inclusion via the sustainable provision of quality, appropriate AT.
Motivation has country team presence in India, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda and they offer expertise via programme consultancy further afield including in Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somaliland and Tanzania. Motivation’s products are shipped via customers to around 50 countries.
A Hybrid Social enterprise established in 1992 which designs, manufactures and sells mobility and 24hour posture support devices globally. ShonaquipSE NPO invests in training, mentoring and capacity-building of community-based healthcare providers, people with disabilities, their families, repair technicians and other service providers.
We provide extensive outreach seating clinic services in 7 countries and work with policymakers to strengthen the ecosystems of support for disability both locally and internationally. All surplus generated through sale of products on both government tenders, private sector and NPO’s is reinvested back into our NPO programmes strengthening our ability to reach the maximum number of underserved and marginalized communities in the most sustainable and responsible manner.
29Improve mobility, access and opportunities for persons with disabilities by supporting local organizations to build a quality, sustainable mobility device provision system aligned with WHO guidelines.
Currently running projects in 58 countries:
UK and US charity dedicated to restoring the dignity, freedom and independence of those with mobility disabilities in the developing world and finding a cure for paralysis.
Primarily in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti – other locations on an ad-hoc basis (humanitarian relief related to natural disasters or conflict). For example, Argentina, Ghana, Tanzania, Ukraine and Venezuela.