The Ida Institute recently attended a stakeholders’ meeting at the World Health Organization on the prevention of deafness and hearing loss. Ida Managing Director Lise Lotte Bundesen attended the two-day meeting at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, along with more than 60 participants from around the world in fields including the hearing healthcare professions, NGOs, research, civil society groups, UN agencies, and manufacturers.
The meeting focused on “the development, implementation, and monitoring of the national hearing care strategies.” To achieve this, participants reviewed the major causes of hearing loss and the current state of ear and hearing care among Member States. The meeting was also an opportunity for the different stakeholders to build connections between their areas of expertise and as a knowledge share of the resources in their respective countries.
The stakeholders also explored possibilities for resource mobilization in ear and hearing care. This will be investigated in part by looking at how World Hearing Day (which the Ida Institute sourced a logo for through a competition in 2015) can be promoted most effectively across all regions and themes.
“It’s very exciting to be a part of such a diverse group representing so many different aspects of hearing health care,” says Lise Lotte. “It should be very interesting to see what synergies can be created through our different working groups.”
We look forward to updating you on Ida’s continued involvement in this project.