Act now. Act together. Invest in NTDs
The World Health Organization (WHO) coordinates and supports policies and strategies to enhance global access to interventions for the prevention, control, elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Consistent with World Health Assembly resolutions and in line with WHO’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work, WHO also supports Member States to expand access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care interventions for NTDs as a contribution towards the achievement of universal health coverage by 2030.
In 2019, NTDs were assessed along 11 dimensions concerning technical requirements; strategy and service delivery; programme capacity; and enablers. The assessment generated the heat map (Fig. 7 of the road map), a systematic, cross-disease view of global-level gaps impeding progress towards the targets, and identified actions to address them. It also produced the disease summaries (annexed to the road map), with the status and priority actions required for each disease.
The second global consultation
The WHO Secretariat has been leading the follow-up assessment since 2019. The initial priority four priority dimensions (diagnostics; advocacy and funding; access and logistics; and monitoring and evaluation) were accessed in 2023 using the improved Gap Assessment Tool (GAT). This public consultation in 2024 seeks your perceptions on the status of progress along the remaining seven dimensions for all 20 NTDs. Your inputs will be consolidated for consideration by disease-specific focus groups whose deliberations will identify current gaps that pose a persistent risk to the attainment of the road map targets. This will provide qualitative evidence on corrective measures needed to address these gaps and inform the Global progress report on NTDs 2025.
Please help us by completing this online questionnaire which is also available in Arabic, French, and Spanish. Please disseminate it as widely as possible through your networks and share it with your colleagues. You will be able to select the diseases and dimensions for which you would like to provide responses.
Neglected tropical diseases
NTDs cause immense human suffering, disability and death. They pose a devastating obstacle to health and remain a serious impediment to poverty reduction, socioeconomic development and universal health coverage.
WHO’s work on neglected tropical diseases
WHO provides technical and strategic guidance towards the reduction of the global burden of NTDs; by doing so, it prioritizes the public health needs of poor and marginalized populations. Key activities include formulating recommendations and setting norms and standards; coordinating the distribution of donated medicines; promoting WHO’s role in partnership; strengthening country-level capacity; and leveraging the contribution of stakeholders to the elimination and eradication of these diseases.
With the help of international partners, WHO supports Member States in the coordination and integration of national control programmes with sectors such as education, agriculture, the environment, water, hygiene, gender, equity, sanitation and veterinary public health.
If you have questions, either about the form or the consultative process, please contact: NTDRoadmap@who.int.