By Dano Gunderson

In March, His Excellency John Kufuor, NTD Special Envoy, and the Global Network traveled to Brussels and Paris to call on senior-level government officials to increase their investments in NTDs.

Belgian Members of Parliament were thrilled to meet with President Kufuor and Dr. Neeraj Mistry, and as a result, the Chairman of the Belgian Foreign Affairs Committee asked Dr. Mistry to visit again and speak about the problem of NTDs in front of the full Foreign Affairs committee.  Also, representatives of the Belgian Development Cooperation―Belgium’s development agency―reaffirmed their belief in the important links between NTDs and health systems strengthening.  While Belgium is tightening its federal budget, officials have included NTDs as a key component of Belgium’s health policies and they hope to further their NTD investments in the future.   The Global Network looks forward to the possibility of mobilizing strong support and creating enthusiasm among other Belgian Members of Parliament about tackling NTDs.

In addition, the Global Network team met with representatives from the European Commission’s EuropeAid department (DG DEVCO), based in Brussels, who expressed support for addressing NTDs and keenly recognized the broad implications that NTDs have on other development areas, such as food security and nutrition.

The French government is also contributing to the fight against NTDs, especially in terms of research and development, and representatives from the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs expressed their interest in doing even more. Considering France’s position at the helm of the global economy, we hope that France will use its influence to raise the profile of NTDs among world leaders at the upcoming G8 Summit. The Global Network believes the G8 has a tremendous opportunity to address NTDs as an effective way of reducing inequality around the globe.

In Paris, President Kufuor was the keynote speaker at an event held at Sciences Po, as well, and was interviewed by Musah Ibrahim Musah about his role as an NTD Special Envoy. President Kufuor stressed the significance of his position in raising fresh support for these diseases as a “Voice for Change” among his G20 colleagues, and he is quite optimistic about the growing global momentum towards NTD control and elimination.  Once again, effective advocacy opened doors and the Global Network was provided with excellent opportunities to share its message among leading government agencies and institutions.

You can read the full article on the President’s interview here.