This document was developed to support the identification of activities that will increase and sustain access to appropriate, affordable hearing aids. A.T.scale is currently developing a prioritisation process to inform which of the market shaping activities proposed above will be incorporated into the Partnership's initial action and investment plan to guide activities and investment in the short-term. While that is underway, some of these proposed activities will be undertaken in the immediate term by the U.K. aid funded A.T.2030 programme in line with its aim to test what works to increase access to affordable A.T..
As interventions are shown to be effective and learnings and outputs from initial investments emerge, they will support a longer-term sector-wide strategic plan. It is expected that different large-scale investments and financial instruments will be needed to achieve long-term outcomes. For example, system strengthening grants may be needed to support the integration into the health system, while match funding or co-investments may catalyse government procurement and investment. On the supply side, donor investment may be leveraged to de-risk private investment in cost-effective supply mechanisms.
A.T.scale welcomes feedback on the articulated approach and seeks collaboration with partners interested in aligning their activities with the proposed strategic approach to market shaping as outlined in this document.