The World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Functioning (ICF) Core Set for Hearing development project will be conducted over the next few years as an exciting research endeavour to specify the core facets of functioning on which a loss of hearing impact most significantly.

Approximately 10% of the world population suffer some degree of hearing loss making this project an important global goal to accurately specify the significant impact that hearing loss has on quality of life indicators. 

Prof De Wet Swanepoel, from the Department of Communication Pathology at the unviersity of Pretoria, was invited to be a steering committee member representating the WHO Africa region in this project. The first meeting was recently held in Amsterdam from 4 to 7 February 2009.