Sharjah 24 – WAM: Global donors at the 2023 Reaching the Last Mile Forum have pledged a collective more than AED2.6 billion (US$777.2 million) to help control, eliminate, and eradicate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), to accelerate progress towards achieving the goals outlined in the World Health Organisation’s 2030 roadmap on NTDs.
Uniting efforts with NTD-endemic countries, donors answered the urgent call to step up the fight against NTDs in the face of climate change, and to work together to improve the lives of the 1.6 billion people worldwide affected by these devastating yet preventable diseases.
The pledging event was hosted by Reaching the Last Mile (RLM), the global health initiative driven by the philanthropy of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in partnership with the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. The forum took place on the first ever Health Day during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28).
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was joined by world leaders including Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of Tanzania; and Dr. Austin Demby, Minister of Health and Sanitation for Sierra Leone, in a demonstration of endemic country leadership against NTDs.
Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, and Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Office of Development and Martyrs Families Affairs at the Presidential Court, which oversees Reaching the Last Mile, were also in attendance, alongside ministers and global health leaders.
The funding builds on the pioneering success of the RLMF, which launched in 2017 as a 10-year, multi-donor fund, to establish a model for eliminating the two diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
Further contributions from country and donor partners including Sierra Leone, the Carter Center, Sightsavers, the Children’s Investment Foundation Fund (CIFF), The Helmsley Charitable Trust, the END Fund, and Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company will see RLMF significantly broaden its scope, with the aim of ensuring over 350 million people no longer require treatment for these diseases by 2030.
Over five years the RLMF has provided over 100 million treatments, trained 1.3 million health workers, and established nine laboratories to support NTD surveillance and testing. The fund also played a critical role in interrupting the transmission of river blindness in Niger, an achievement once thought to be scientifically impossible in Africa, and has supported Senegal in nearing this milestone.
The wider pledging moment saw new, multimillion-dollar commitments made by organisations including the Anesvad Foundation, CIFF, USAID, Global Health EDCTP3, UBS Optimus Foundation, NALA Foundation, Evidence Action, Helen Keller Intl, and the Fred Hollows Foundation, in addition to the governments of Germany and Belgium.
These pledges will help close the funding gap needed to expedite progress towards the WHO roadmap targets which call for at least 100 countries to have eliminated at least one NTD by 2030, and to reduce by 90 per cent the number of people requiring treatment for NTDs.
To date, 50 countries have eliminated at least one NTD and 600 million people no longer require treatment. Cases of some diseases that have plagued communities for centuries, such as Guinea worm disease and sleeping sickness, are at an all-time low. However, climate change is affecting the reach and prevalence of infectious diseases like NTDs, threatening to erase elimination gains and stall future progress.
The commitments will help finance essential programmes and treatments, support new research and innovations, and strengthen frontline health systems and workforces, among other investments.
The 2023 Reaching the Last Mile Forum convened more than 450 government ministers, global health and development experts, philanthropists, and civil society leaders to galvanise concrete commitments towards mitigating the effects of the climate crisis on human health.
For an optimal experience, please
