Methodology
The report focuses on five assistive products: wheelchairs, prostheses, spectacles, hearing aids and digital AT (including
augmentative and alternative communication, screen readers and smartphones), selected for their high demand in LMICs.
The report is organized into sections:
- ‘Demand landscape’ examines the demand for these five assistive products, focusing on key buyers such as non-profit organizations, corporate foundations and social enterprises.
- ‘Assistive products supply cost drivers’ analyses the key cost components contributing to the final landing price of assistive products from the factory to the end user and offers targeted recommendations
for optimizing supply chain costs.
In addition, it includes three annexes:
- ‘China assistive product supplier landscape’ provides an in-depth analysis of the supply landscape from one of the world’s leading manufacturing hubs of assistive products. It highlights key trends, challenges and opportunities associated with exporting assistive products from China to LMICs.13
- ‘NGO/corporate foundations/social enterprises’ provides details of organizations providing assistive products in LMICs, including
their mission, focus areas, geographic reach and product sourcing criteria.
- The country summaries provide an overview of the policy, financing, regulatory, procurement and pricing frameworks for priority assistive products across
12 countries. These countries were strategically selected to represent a diverse range of geographies, levels of maturity in assistive
technology programmes, degrees of government involvement and varying regulatory environments.
The methodology of this report includes a combination of primary and secondary data collection. Primary data were obtained
through structured interviews and surveys with global AT providers such as UNICEF, NGOs, corporate foundations, implementing
partners and ministries in various countries. These included over 50 key informant interviews with stakeholders across various
LMICs to understand procurement practices, demand trends and price components of supply. A survey was conducted in the selected
12 countries, targeting government representatives, to gather official information on procurement, cost and financing of assistive
products.
- Demand analysis methodology: Given the limited availability of comprehensive and standardized data across countries, this
analysis adopts a pragmatic, mixed- methods approach. It draws from procurement volumes reported by major global distribution
channels – including NGOs, corporate foundations, social enterprises and global procurement platforms – as well as a targeted
snapshot of procurement activities by governments in a sample of LMICs. This method allows for triangulation of available
data to generate indicative estimates of supply relative to known global prevalence. For the purposes of this study:
- Need refers to the estimated population requiring a specific assistive product, based on global prevalence data aligned with
moderate to severe functional limitations.
- Demand refers to the estimated population (subset of need) currently accessing assistive products.
- Procurement denotes the number of assistive products acquired – either through public sector channels, NGOs, social enterprises
or global pooled procurement platforms – intended for distribution or sale within LMICs.
- Unmet need is understood as the proportion of the population requiring a product but lacking access to it, whether due to
financial, geographic or systemic barriers.
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- Supply cost analysis methodology: Given the lack of disaggregated cost data across assistive technology supply chains, this
study employed a bottom-up costing approach using a combination of desk research, supplier interviews and market intelligence
from social enterprises, NGOs and procurement agencies. The analysis focused on identifying and estimating the major cost
drivers for supply of AT products – from shipment and importation to last-mile delivery in LMICs. The study examined cost
components across four representative products: hearing aids, prostheses, spectacles and wheelchairs. For each, the analysis
considered the following factors:
- International logistics (freight, insurance, customs duties)
- Local costs (distribution, warehousing, retail margins and service delivery such as fitting or customization where required)
Where exact data were unavailable, proxy values were used based on similar products or regions and validated through consultation
with suppliers and practitioners. All cost estimates were standardized to a percentage of the ex-factory price of the product.
This approach enables a comparative view of where costs are concentrated within the supply chain and highlights opportunities
for efficiency gains or price reductions through pooled procurement, local production or policy reforms.