About Prosthetics in LMICs

Prosthetics in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) is an ICChange charitable campaign under development. It focuses on a practical but often overlooked problem: people affected by limb loss in low- and middle-income countries often face major barriers to receiving prosthetic and rehabilitation support.

This work sits primarily in ICChange’s Problem Space, where we clarify complex challenges and help shape practical pathways forward. It is now moving into early Solutions Space development, where ICChange is exploring how a Kenya / East Africa demonstration pathway could help strengthen access to prosthetics care.

Prosthetics in LMICs is not simply a device campaign. It is being developed as a systems-change campaign. The goal is to understand and strengthen the pathway that connects people affected by limb loss to assessment, fitting, rehabilitation support, follow-up, repair, and long-term use.

ICChange is currently shaping this campaign with potential collaborators and technical partners. Kenya / East Africa is being explored as an initial demonstration context. The pathway, clinical partners, partner roles, budget, and reporting model are still under development.

Prosthetics in LMICs Within the ICChange Platform

ICChange makes systemic change practical. We help move complex challenges from fragmented efforts to coordinated, accountable pathways for action.

Prosthetics in LMICs fits directly within that platform approach.

Through this campaign, ICChange is working to:

Clarify What Matters
Understand the real prosthetics access gap, including who is affected, where barriers exist, and what prevents people from receiving appropriate support.

Design What Works
Bring together clinical insight, prosthetic technology, mobile or distributed production options, training, local infrastructure, and reporting systems to shape a practical demonstration pathway.

Scale What Sticks
If the pathway proves viable, use the evidence and learning to inform future adaptation in other low-resource settings.

The campaign is connected to ICChange’s broader role as a platform that aligns people, ideas, systems, community need, local capability, capital, and accountable learning.

The System Problem

For many people affected by limb loss, access to prosthetics is not just a question of whether a device exists. The larger issue is whether there is a functioning pathway to receive the right support at the right time. (Prosthetics in LMICs)

In many low-resource settings, people may face barriers at every step:

• limited access to clinical assessment;
• long travel distances to reach care;
• cost barriers for devices, sockets, components, repairs, and follow-up;
• limited prosthetics and orthotics workforce capacity;
• services concentrated in fixed or urban locations;
• weak rehabilitation and patient education support;
• limited access to repairs, replacement parts, or adjustments;
• incomplete data on need, use, outcomes, and long-term benefit.

These gaps can leave people without appropriate mobility support or with devices that are difficult to use over time. The consequences can affect mobility, dignity, school, work, family life, and participation in community life.

That is why ICChange is treating prosthetics access as a systems challenge. Improving access requires more than producing devices. It requires a connected pathway that is clinically grounded, locally relevant, practical to deliver, and accountable to the people it is intended to serve.

Challenge Statement

How can ICChange help develop a practical prosthetics access pathway in Kenya / East Africa so that people affected by limb loss can move more reliably from need to assessment, fitting, rehabilitation support, follow-up, and repair, while ensuring the pathway is clinically grounded, locally informed, accountable, and able to generate evidence for future adaptation?

Theory of Change

If prosthetics access is supported as a connected clinical, production, rehabilitation, training, and reporting pathway, then people affected by limb loss are more likely to move from unmet need toward appropriate prosthetic support.

If the Prosthetics in LMICs campaign is strengthened, then ICChange and its partners can help connect community need, clinical insight, prosthetic technology, local capacity, charitable support, and accountable reporting with a pathway intended to improve access to mobility support.

Over time, this can help shift prosthetics access from fragmented, hard-to-reach services toward more coordinated, measurable, and locally relevant pathways for people in low-resource settings.

What Prosthetics in LMICs Supports

Prosthetics in LMICs is currently focused on early-stage campaign and pathway development.

This work may support:

• understanding the prosthetics access gap in Kenya / East Africa;
• identifying the right clinical partners and referral pathways;
• defining who the campaign is intended to serve;
• mapping the patient journey from need to assessment, fitting, rehabilitation, follow-up, and repair;
• clarifying the role of potential technical and implementation partners;
• exploring mobile, fixed, or hybrid service models;
• validating budget and cost assumptions;
• developing a reporting and learning framework;
• preparing an accountable giving pathway before implementation support is accepted.

Donation levels and contribution options are available through the donation page.

High-Level Goals and Outcomes

Through Prosthetics in LMICs, ICChange is working toward:

A clearer prosthetics access pathway
ICChange is working to define how people affected by limb loss can move from need to appropriate support through a practical and accountable pathway.

Stronger local and regional capacity
The campaign is intended to support models that may strengthen access to production, fitting, training, repair, and follow-up support in Kenya / East Africa.

Better partner coordination
ICChange is working to align charitable support, clinical partners, technical contributors, local infrastructure, and reporting systems around a shared public-benefit purpose.

Practical evidence for future adaptation
The campaign is intended to generate learning about what it takes to improve prosthetics access in low-resource settings.

Accountable charitable support
ICChange will report on documented activity and will not claim specific health, income, product, beneficiary, or long-term impact outcomes unless evidence supports them.

Why ICChange

ICChange makes systemic change practical.

Prosthetics access in LMICs is the type of challenge ICChange is built to help address. It requires more than one organization, one device, or one funding source. It requires a coordinated pathway that connects people, ideas, systems, and capital around a practical public-benefit goal.

ICChange’s role is to clarify the problem, help align the right actors, shape an accountable pathway, and steward charitable support responsibly. This includes protecting the public-benefit purpose of the work, avoiding unsupported claims, and ensuring that any future implementation pathway is properly defined before funds are committed.

The goal is not only to support a project. The goal is to help build the conditions under which people affected by limb loss can access better, more coordinated support over time.

Find Out How to Support Prosthetics in LMICs

ICChange is currently developing a giving pathway connected to Prosthetics in LMICs.

To support this work, please visit the Prosthetics in LMICs donation page.

Contribute to Prosthetics in LMICs

Contribution Note

Donations support ICChange’s charitable work connected to Prosthetics in LMICs. ICChange will steward contributions in alignment with its charitable purposes, approved pathway, and reporting commitments.

Specific health, income, business, product, delivery, beneficiary, or long-term impact outcomes will only be reported where evidence supports them.