Category Archives: post 2015

Newly-Formed German NTD Network Poised to Advance NTD Advocacy

Germany, post 2015, United Kingdom

 

Logo_DNTDsOn September 22nd, the Global Network was thrilled to support a launch event for the German Network against Neglected Tropical Diseases. Stakeholders from civil society, the scientific community and the private sector from across Germany convened in Berlin to participate in a special parliamentary evening introducing the newly-formed alliance, which is dedicated to controlling and eliminating 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2020.

By joining with the United States and the United Kingdom — two leaders in providing funding for NTD programs — Germany has the potential to play a key role in accelerating efforts to control and eliminate NTDs.

The German Network launch event was covered by seven different German media outlets and attended by a broad group of more than 50 participants, including the German government. The Global Network’s Managing Director, Dr. Neeraj Mistry, provided the closing presentation, identifying opportunities for German partners to help fill the current NTD funding gap.

Dr. Jürgen May, professor at Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine Hamburg and spokesman for the Network, expressed his confidence in the new coalition. “The members are united by their shared desire to eliminate diseases such as schistosomiasis and African sleeping sickness, which primarily occur in tropical countries and typically thrive in impoverished settings. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is also now showing how important it is to bolster efforts to fight poverty-related diseases. Many of us have been involved in this arena for a long time. Collaboration between non-governmental organizations, science and industry will make these initiatives even more efficient.”

After participating in the successful launch event, Neeraj Mistry left feeling confident that the newly-formed German Network is well-poised to further advocate for NTD efforts around the world.

Germany is now the second European country to form a coalition dedicated to controlling and eliminating NTDs — following the footsteps of the UK Coalition against Neglected Tropical Diseases. Established  in 2011, the UK Coalition has been hard at work raising awareness primarily among UK policy makers, urging for greater cross-sectoral integration of NTD programs with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and education initiatives and increased funding and better coordination for existing NTD control efforts. Thanks to the efforts of the UK Coalition and others, NTDs are now seen as a key barrier to attaining the existing Millennium Development Goals and successfully alleviating poverty within the most marginalized communities.

Both the German and UK coalitions are also crucial partners in advocating for the inclusion of NTDs in the post-2015 development agenda. The impact of NTDs stretches across multiple development sectors, including WASH, nutrition, and maternal and child health. Therefore, long-term sustainable development, poverty reduction and improved health outcomes cannot be successfully achieved without simultaneously addressing NTDs. The NGO, academic and private sector representatives involved in both the German Network and UK NTD Coalition have a unique opportunity to help ensure NTDs remain on the world’s development agenda.

The Global Network congratulates the German NTD Network for its successful launch this fall, and looks forward to its continued progress in advocating for the control and elimination of NTDs. For more information about the German Networks, you may visit their website here.

Neglected No More: A Post-2015 Framework that Delivers for NTDs

NTDs, policy, post 2015,

By Helen Hamilton, Policy Advisor on NTDs at Sightsavers

This week the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) community will come together at the NNN – a welcome acronym for the Non-government Development Organisations Neglected Tropical Disease network. Together, we’ll be reflecting on achievements such as the global trachoma mapping project and the challenges ahead if we are to achieve our elimination goals.

At the same time, across the Atlantic, world leaders in New York will turn their attention to questions of poverty eradication and sustainable development in the post-2015 development agenda.

Today many millions benefit from the huge advances and scale up in the NTD response but many others won’t unless more is done to reach the most vulnerable across the globe – those already marginalised and underserved by national and global development. For the NTD community, the post-2015 dialogues are a huge opportunity both to ensure the specific inclusion of NTDs within the framework and provide an enabling environment, such as improved hygiene alongside water and sanitation, which supports the elimination and control of these diseases.

We know that nothing has more impact on health than poverty and marginalisation and this holds true for NTDs. That’s why we’re calling for a post-2015 development framework that includes NTDs and also addresses their major risk factors, such as inadequate access to health and water, sanitation and hygiene services.

Why is this important to the NTD response? Because one billion people globally who are affected by NTDs precisely because they are marginalised, vulnerable and living in poverty. Their health needs and rights are not met and upheld.

A new focus

The focus of post-2015 has been addressing broad systematic inequalities that keep people in poverty and allow diseases to flourish. The focus on delivering lasting change and the recognition that equity and wellbeing must be central in this new agenda aligns squarely with the NTD response.

One of the major ideas to gain traction in post-2015 discussions is ‘leave no one behind’. This shift would mean that no post-2015 goal could be reached unless it meets the need of everyone – in particular poor and marginalised groups such as people with disabilities, children and older people.

To do this, we need a framework that puts people at the centre that addresses the structural barriers to accessing health services, such as making health services accessible and inclusive to people with disabilities.

A new health narrative

Under the MDGs, there were three health-focused goals but this is unlikely to be the case for the post-2015 framework. The health sector has united behind the call for one goal that supports healthy lives for all. Building strong and resilient health systems are critical to achieving and sustaining NTD goals. Health systems are the only way to ensure that everyone everywhere can access the healthcare they need, including targeted NTD services, when they need it and in a way that is affordable.

A dedicated NTD target

Within any health goal we need a specific NTD target that delivers on preventive, curative and rehabilitative care for people at risk or affected by NTDs. To do this effectively and support the NTD response, it will need to draw on existing targets and objectives that the NTD community is working towards, such as the WHO NTD roadmap and the London Declaration on NTDs.

Neglected no more

The post-2015 discussions are primarily a question of people’s opportunity to influence their future. Good health plays a critical role in empowering people to achieve other development goals. Neglected populations who have been subject to centuries of ill health caused by neglected tropical diseases must be prioritised within any new framework if we are truly committed to leave no one behind.

Improving health is not just a case of tackling disease but influencing the wider determinants of health such as poverty, employment, housing and education that allow NTDs to exist and flourish. We need a framework that takes a dual approach to NTDs – addressing them directly through specific targets and indicators while also recognising that universal health coverage within stronger health systems and eliminating extreme poverty are critical to ending NTDs.

Calling All Campus Campaigners!: END7’s New Resources to Support Student NTD Advocacy

END7, policy, post 2015, Student Advocacy, ,

 

UNGA Poster

Over the past year, the END7 campaign has dramatically increased its base of student supporters at universities around the world. Students at dozens of universities have organized advocacy, education, and fundraising events, raising over $21,000 for END7 during the 2013-2014 academic year alone. The representatives of the END7 Student Advisory Board are hard at work planning a new year of on-campus activities to support the NTD control and elimination effort.

This year, the END7 campaign is involving students in promoting all of our online advocacy actions and providing them with resources to plan their own events on campus. September’s focus centers on the opening of the 69th United Nations General Assembly in New York – the starting point for the final round of deliberations that will finalize the post-2015 development agenda and adjoining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, which will succeed the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000, will play a key role in guiding international development and global health efforts over the next fifteen years. It is critical that a health target to control and eliminate NTDs is included in the final SDGs, not only to ensure that they are prioritized on national and global development agendas over the next fifteen years, but also because treating these diseases is necessary to ensure that our goals to improve nutrition, education, health and economic productivity are successful.

To that end, END7 has launched a petition targeting Ambassador Elizabeth M. Cousens, United States representative to the UN Social and Economic Council, asking her to continue to support the inclusion of NTDs in the SDGs as the goals are being finalized over the next year. To help us spread the word and collect more signatures on this important petition, we created a Student Action Kit to give students all the tools they need to be informed and effective NTD advocates: key facts about the United Nations and the SDGs, suggested tweets to promote the petition, ideas for events to help drum up support on campus, links to factsheets and a downloadable poster to spread the word, and even a Prezi presentation students can give to classes and club meetings.

Students have already made tremendous progress in their advocacy – in just one week, they’ve collected over 500 signatures on the petition, and our END7 Student Advisory Board representatives are poised to collect 500 more on post cards we printed with space for personal messages asking Ambassador Cousens for her support of the inclusion of NTDs in the SDGs. We know this outpouring of public support will send a strong message to the United Nations as we chart a course for the next fifteen years of international development efforts – a message that our generation is committed to seeing the end of NTDs.

We are so proud of our student supporters’ efforts to speak out on behalf of the poor and vulnerable communities most impacted by NTDs. If you (or a student you know!) want to get your campus involved, email me at to get started, check out our Ideas for Students, and join our .

Why focus on NTDs, and Why Now?

END7, policy, post 2015, poverty, , ,

 

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Of all the challenges our world faces, why do we focus on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)?

For END7, the answer is simple. Because these are the most common diseases of the world’s poor, affecting more than a billion people around the world. And treatment and control of NTDs is critical to ending extreme poverty and malnutrition. These diseases stunt children’s growth and ability to learn. Parents grow too weak or disabled to provide for their children. As a result, they trap entire communities in a cycle of disease and poverty.

Not only is NTD treatment inexpensive (we can treat these debilitating diseases with a packet of donated pills), treating these diseases is necessary to ensure that global efforts to aid nutrition, education and development are successful.

Why do we need to act now?

As August comes to a close, we’re approaching a critical moment in the fight against NTDs. This year, for the first time, NTDs are included in the ‘global development to do list’ — an early draft of the Sustainable Development Goals that will guide the world’s efforts to end extreme poverty by 2030.

For the first time, world leaders would prioritize ending the suffering of the world’s poor from NTDs — if we make sure controlling and eliminating NTDs remains a development goal.

High level discussions will begin this fall and we need your help to ensure that NTDs remain in the SDGs during UN Member State negotiations throughout the coming over the next year.

Join us this month in spreading the word. We’re at a critical point in the fight against NTDs and are grateful to have so many END7 supporters speaking out.

Help us grow the movement . And tell us why you’re fighting NTDs by using the hashtag #NTDsnow.