WHO governing bodies and the United Nations family

Advocacy is a process of influencing people to create change. WHO raises awareness of public health problems and seeks solutions to them through its normative role by developing technical guidance and international standards, and through consensus at the World Health Assembly.

WHO has consistently advocated for action against NTDs. Over the past decade, the World Health Assembly has adopted various resolutions on NTDs to call attention to and prioritize actions to prevent, control, eliminate or eradicate them.

Resolution WHA66.12, adopted by the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in 2013, called upon WHO’s international partners to support Member States to provide sufficient and predictable funding to enable the targets of the first NTD road map to be met and efforts to control NTDs to be sustained. The resolution also explicitly called for support to Member States to implement national plans and to promote universal access to preventive chemotherapy, and diagnostics, case management, and vector control and other prevention measures.

In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/74.2 (“Political declaration of the high-level meeting on universal health coverage”), which calls for stronger efforts to address NTDs as part of universal health coverage.

Another major achievement for advocacy was the inclusion of NTDs in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 3 (the “health” goal), target 3.3 invites the global community to “by 2030, end the epidemics of … neglected tropical diseases”. Indicator 3.3.5 (“number of people requiring interventions against neglected tropical diseases”) measures the contribution of interventions against NTDs to the global development agenda.

The WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases works with countries, partners, stakeholders and diverse sectors to raise the profile of these diseases and disease groups. This includes convening partners and the global health community to support the new road map and to reinforce the NTD brand. The Department convened two global partners’ meetings in 2007 and 2017, which resulted in increased commitment and pledges for donated medicines and the funding of NTD programmes, respectively.

Expansion of WHO collaborating centres and laboratories and support from academia have contributed to raising the profile of NTDs. Similarly, capacity-building initiatives, innovation and an increased volume of scientific literature have attracted global attention to NTDs. 

Despite these efforts, NTDs continue to be neglected on the global public health agenda. This requires further action to increase awareness of these diseases as global priorities.