Locally Produced Prosthetics in Nepal

These two case study reports of locally produced prosthetics in Nepal arise from GDI Hub’s work with Zener Technologies and the Enabling Fridays Community, as part of a project funded by FCDO through the AT2030 programme.

 

In these reports, we discuss how the project aims to address individualised needs and achieve quality processes throughout the whole production process, as well as understanding how global and local expertise can efficiently collaborate to enable innovation that might not easily fit in many business models.

The relationship between Zener Technologies, a digital manufacturing and innovation company in Kathmandu, and GDI Hub started during the Covid pandemic, on a different project aimed at locally producing medical devices across six countries. When this programme finished, and the focus of the personnel involved was placed back on AT (assistive technologies) and the AT2030 programme, this highly successful partnership was seen as a strong opportunity to develop innovation projects with a focus on local production systems.

To begin this, a global-local community was formed, The Enabling Fridays Community which aimed to bring together local and global expertise working in the AT sector to identify routes that would unlock local innovation and improve current gaps in services. Three work streams were devised, one of which was bespoke AP (assisted product) developments, intended to address individual user needs now, with the longer term goal of building the team’s capacity to work together and address further innovation challenges. Two individual cases were identified within the Kathmandu area. These are described in detail in two case study reports: