At the launch of the guidelines in 2001, WHO

• Called on the private sector to provide affordable hearing aids in the developing world,
• Estimated that current annual production of hearing aids is less than 10% of global needs;
• Showed that over 30 million hearing aids are needed per year in developing countries together with necessary services and staff to fit them.
• Emphasized that the price of hearing aids and services in developing countries will remain prohibitive until all stakeholders (governments, implementing NGOs, manufacturers, donors) work together in partnership to reduce costs.

The realization that it could be possible to solve these problems led to the creation of WWHearing.