More than one billion people around the world are affected by one or more neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). In more than a decade of NTD programming, USAID and its partners have accomplished what many would have considered impossible: through close collaboration with the private sector—in which pharmaceutical companies have donated $19 billion worth of drugs to USAID-support countries—and technical support from the global development community, many countries have eliminated, or are close to eliminating, some of the major NTDs affecting their populations.
The Challenge
To continue building on the progress of control and elimination, NTD programming must be managed effectively at the country level, meaning countries must have both the technical and financial resources to ensure sustainability of these programs. Accelerating NTD elimination will require “mainstreaming” NTD activities into countries’ health planning, financing, and monitoring systems and strengthening collaboration between health and other sectors.
The Opportunity
Coverage challenges in the last endemic areas are unique, requiring innovative strategies based on accurate data in a specific context. Act to End NTD’s | East will support countries in addressing barriers through innovation, documenting and sharing successes, and identifying sustainable, long-term control platforms. Working across 13 countries—including Bangladesh, D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Laos, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam—this program will support the creation of country-specific transition plans that leverage financial and human resources, as well as other sector platforms, to support disease control, surveillance and clear resource mobilization strategies. As countries transition NTD programs away from a reliance on foreign assistance, Act to End NTD’s | East will strengthen local capacity for planning, budgeting and delivery so that NTD programs can continue with high levels of effectiveness.
Our Work
RTI has been working with USAID to control and eliminate NTD’s since 2006. Through the ENVISION project, RTI has supported countries with on-the-ground implementation in 19 NTD-endemic countries, strengthening ministries of health and their national NTD programs.
Under the newly awarded five-year program, Act to End NTD’s | East, RTI will lead a consortium of implementing partners to engage countries in the development and implementation of sustainable control and elimination plans for seven NTDs, including: lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and three intestinal worms known collectively as soil-transmitted helminths (hookworm, ringworm, and whipworm). This work will help countries accelerate progress, address barriers with innovation, document and share successes, identify long-term control platforms and strengthen local capacity for planning, budgeting and delivery so that NTD programs can continue with high levels of effectiveness. Successful implementation of this 5-year program will mean that hundreds of millions of people will no longer be at risk for the seven NTDs targeted by this work.
A diverse team of partners will carry out this work, merging expertise across NTDs; water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); health systems strengthening; education; governance; nutrition; and gender equity to support sustainable and country-led approaches based on proven, cost-effective NTD interventions. R4D will play a key role in the project’s ‘mainstreaming’ agenda, which will aim to equip change agents at the national and community levels to more fully assume programmatic and financial responsibility for the NTDs response. We will draw on our extensive experience in health system strengthening; sustainability, integration, and transition planning; health financing and domestic resource mobilization; and market shaping, bringing lessons and tools to the NTDs community from across the health sector.
Photo: RTI International ©
