Fifth report of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTDs)

Overview

A meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, on 12–13 April 2011.

The Chairman, Professor David Crompton, opened the meeting by welcoming the new members of the STAG. WHO’sAssistant Director-General for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/HTM), Dr Hiroki Nakatani, spoke on behalf of the Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, and welcomed the participants. Dr Nakatani said that WHO was going through a comprehensive review of its priority setting, governance and administration. Member States had strongly affirmed that control of communicable diseases must stay in WHO’s list of priority areas, and that overcoming neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) remained a priority within communicable diseases. The Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (HTM/NTD) has set an example to the rest of WHO in establishing innovative, informal alliances and developing public–private partnerships to raise funds for its activities. However, he also sounded a warning that the global economic downturn has had anegative impact on the Global Fund, which could in turn reduce funding for NTDs. He stressed the importance of producing robustevidence that funding for NTDs promotes social justice.