The World Hearing Forum, with over 200 members, drives a global advocacy initiative that provides a common platform and narrative for all stakeholders to collaborate and raise awareness about the need and means for ear and hearing care through its 5 workstreams: (1) Make Listening Safe, (2) World Hearing Day, (3) Changemakers (4) External Relations and (5) Members Engagement, to achieve its advocacy goal.   

Interested in becoming a member? The membership application process will reopen from March 15 to June 15, 2025.  

Credit: World Hearing Forum

As you might know, a committee reviews each issue of the WHF newsletter carefully. We want to take this space to introduce you to the committee so you can get to know the members better. In this number we travel to South Africa to meet Victor.

Professor Victor de Andrade is an audiologist and associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he supervises clinical students and serves as Assistant Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Humanities. He has worked as a technical advisor for WHO, UNICEF, and other global organizations on deafness and assistive technology. An active researcher, he has published in scholarly journals, presented internationally, and serves on various university and ethics committees. His expertise spans deafness, disability, assistive technology, bioethics, and audiology in diverse settings.

Credit: WHO

A new year, a new identity for the World Hearing Forum

We’re excited to unveil our refreshed World Hearing Forum logo—designed with accessibility at its core! This update aligns with best practices in accessible design. We hope you like it and use it in your communications materials from now on!

Credit: WHO

Join us to celebrate World Hearing Day 2025 (WHD 2025)

Did you know that the World Hearing Day was established in 2007 and has been observed by WHO from 2012 onwards? Read more about the history of World Hearing Day here.

This year, we continue building on the momentum from 2024 by focusing on "Changing mindsets: empower yourself to make ear and hearing care a reality for all!". 

This upcoming campaign aims to inspire individuals to:

• Protect their hearing from loud sounds.
• Check their hearing regularly.
• Use hearing devices when needed.
• Support and advocate for those living with hearing loss.

Access Free Campaign Materials
Get involved by downloading resources, posters, and activity ideas to celebrate ear and hearing care in your community:

• Access here UN languages editable materials
• Access here NON-UN language editable materials
• Communication toolkit

To learn more about the campaign and register your event, you can visit the campaign page. 

If you missed the introduction webinar on 28 January 2025 you can watch the recording here.

Credit: World Hearing Forum

The World Hearing Forum’s (WHF) Student Changemakers Awards initiative seeks to engage student changemakers from around the world in developing innovative solutions for ear and hearing care (EHC) in Lower—and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Are you a World Hearing Forum member and would like to contribute to this newsletter?

We look forward to receiving WHF-related actions and activities content to feature it in future issues! Send your new content to us using the form below.

Each WHF workstream has a volunteer facilitator who supports the workstreams in various activities. We want to introduce them so you can better understand who is behind the scenes. In this number, we introduce you to Melinda. A warm welcome to her!

Credit: World Hearing Forum

Workstream facilitator corner

Melinda is a health promotion practitioner with over 15 years of experience across non-government and tertiary sectors in several areas, including state-wide injury prevention, sector development, healthy lifestyle programs, and public health advocacy. Melinda is passionate about strategic planning, project management and empowering others to build their skills. Melinda is Program Manager of Ear and Hearing Health at The Kids Research Institute Australia. The team focuses on improving child ear health outcomes so all children start primary school with good hearing. Melinda is also undertaking her PhD at Curtin University, focusing on public health advocacy action on social determinants of health.

What motivated her to take up the role of the WHF workstream facilitator?

As someone with bilateral hearing loss, she believes in what the World Hearing Forum aims to achieve. She saw the role of member engagement workstream facilitator as a unique opportunity to engage ear and hearing care colleagues across the globe whilst increasing awareness of the World Hearing Forum. "So far, it has been a great experience to think strategically about how we can better engage members. I have also enjoyed working with like-minded people. I highly recommend that others be involved in the WHF activities however they can", she shares.

Credit: WHO

Training in assistive products in India

Training in assistive products (TAP) is an open-access online learning platform developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to the widespread shortage of personnel trained to provide AT for people with disabilities, chronic health conditions and older persons.  Two new TAP modules have recently been developed and need to be field-tested to ensure that they are fit for purpose before publication. The modules are:

• Hearing Assistive Products module, which introduces hearing and hearing assistive products and teaches how to carry out an ear health screen. 

• Hearing aids module, which teaches how to carry out a hearing test using an audiometer and how to safely and effectively provide hearing aids, including assessment, fitting, user training, and follow-up. 

India was as an ideal location for field testing. The program will focus on training nurses in primary healthcare facilities to screen for ear health issues, provide basic interventions, and manage hearing aids. To ensure effective implementation, mentors will support the nurses for six months while data is collected to evaluate the program's global feasibility.

The first training session took place in Delhi on 11 November, with participation from 22 attendees, including WHO staff from headquarters, regional, and country offices. The successful launch marks an essential step toward strengthening ear and hearing care at the primary health level. The modules will be finalized and launched in 2025.

Credit: ITU

WTSA-24 side event: Changing the narrative: Applying mobile technologies for safe listening and hearing conservation

The World Telecommunications Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24) was held in Delhi, India, and was accompanied by the India Mobile Congress. It brought together governments, health professionals, academia and industry to discuss how Information and Communications Technology can help make listening safe. This event presented a unique opportunity for WHO and ITU to showcase and promote their safe listening standards for furthering its implementation within the booming mobile technology sector. 

Credit: WHO

The African Summit on Hearing Impairment 

Over 100 participants from 20 African countries, including representatives from Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Congo, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Djibouti and Senegal attended the African Summit on Hearing Impairment in Nairobi (Kenya) from 7 to 8 October 2024.

The overall objective of the meeting was to raise awareness of the challenges facing Ear and Hearing Care, build the capacity of member countries to address these challenges and formulate actionable interventions to address the challenges identified.

WHO representatives highlighted the urgent need for ear and hearing care in the region, emphasising that the lack of services affects individuals, reduces productivity, and has significant social and economic consequences. While solutions exist, they remain out of reach for most people in low—and middle-income countries, including those in the African region. Public health leaders must take action to ensure equitable access to ear and hearing care for all, aligning with the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The summit also witnessed the launch of the first-of-its-kind Status report on ear and hearing care in the WHO African region. The launch event highlighted the findings of the situation analysis and emphasized the need to strengthen health systems for ear and hearing care in the region. The report outlines the status of ear and hearing care (EHC) and health system capacity with respect to the H.E.A.R.I.N.G interventions and provides specific country profiles. Following the launch, a strategic policy dialogue with 18 countries was held to identify challenges, opportunities and possible ear and hearing care actions in the countries for 2025-26.

Ear and hearing care data of 43 countries can be viewed in the dashboard here.

Credit: WHO

Launch of the Global Standard for safe listening in video games and esports

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has officially released a ‘WHO-ITU Global standard for safe listening in video games and esports’ (ITU-T H.872). Developed through a collaboration between WHO’s Ear and Hearing Care programme and ITU members, this standard incorporates input from civil society, scientific research, and the private sector. Inspired by the existing ‘WHO-ITU Global standard for personal audio devices and systems’ (ITU-T H.870), this new standard it a world’s first, and outlines a set of features for both video gameplay devices and software titles to help players better understand and manage risks to their hearing during gameplay. 

This standard represents a significant step forward in protecting hearing health in the video gameplay community, which is estimated to include more than three billion people, who enjoy video gameplay on a variety of devices and platforms.  

WHO will formally launch the standard and supporting materials around World Hearing Day. 

An International Online Survey on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Practices Among Gamers and Esports Participants (Preprint)

A new study by the WHO and the Center for Rehabilitation in Global Health Systems at the University of Lucerne, a WHO Collaborating Centre, highlights the urgent need for interventions to promote safe listening among video game players and esports participants.

Surveying nearly 500 gamers worldwide, the study found that while many are aware of hearing risks, barriers—such as the belief that lower volumes reduce the gaming experience—hinder safer listening habits. It underscores a gap between knowledge and action, emphasizing the need for built-in safe listening features and targeted awareness campaigns.

Strategies for crowdsourcing hearing health information: a comparative study of educational programs and volunteer-based campaigns on Wikimedia

This study compared two strategies for enhancing hearing health content on Wikimedia platforms: volunteer-based outreach campaigns and university course assignments. It evaluated their impact, reach, and implementation feasibility in improving public health information.

Noise Exposure History and Age-Related Changes to Hearing

This study reveals that individuals with high noise exposure not only have poorer hearing across the frequency range but may also experience further hearing declines at certain frequencies as they age. Findings underscore the importance of prioritizing noise exposure as a modifiable risk factor for hearing loss, for both its immediate and potentially long-term impacts on hearing.

In this issue, we’re sharing frequently asked questions and answers about ear care to help you better understand how to protect your hearing and maintain ear health.

Credit: The Hearing Review

Hearing care solutions we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show 2025 (CES 2025)

At CES 2025 held in Las Vegas, several innovative hearing care solutions were showcased, highlighting advancements in assistive technology and over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. These developments underscore the rapid advancements in hearing care technology, offering more integrated and user-friendly solutions for individuals with hearing challenges.

Green light for companies to sell innovative devices, like earphones with hearing aid functionality

One in 3 adults in the UK is deaf or experience hearing loss or tinnitus - which rises to more than 50% of over 55. Thanks to government action, tens of thousands of people with hearing loss in the UK will have access to groundbreaking new hearing aid devices.

We would like to give a warm welcome to our new members: Rose Academies Inc (USA), Community And Family Aid Foundation (Ghana).

The WHO Ear and Hearing Care Programme has curated this newsletter. Reach out via email:

• For general enquiries related to the World Hearing Forum at  whf@who.int
• For enquiries related to the Make Listening Safe Initiative at mls@who.int 
• Is there anything specific you'd like to see more of in the WHF newsletter? Send your feedback to Carolina Pardal Belinchón at belinchonc@who.int
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