📍#SaveTheDate “Regional Neglected Tropical Diseases (#NTDs) Meeting for Eastern and Central #Africa #SADC countries” with the East African Community (EAC), and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Member States
📆: Wednesday, 31 May – Friday, 02 June 2023 📍Novotel Convention and Spa in Antananarivo, Madagascar
Background:
Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) regularly occur within an area or community (endemic) in 49 AU Member States. They affect more than 600 million people, accounting for about 42% of the global burden of NTDs. Socioeconomic factors such as poverty, heightened exposure to vectors, unsafe food and water, reservoir hosts and climate and other poor living conditions exacerbate the spread of NTDs. In some regions of the African continent, socio-political conflicts and internal civil unrest continue to aggravate the spread of NTDs and hamper effective interventions to control and /or eliminate these diseases.
If untreated, NTDs can lead to blindness, disfigurement, chronic pain, cognitive and other long-term disabilities, and other irreversible damage that creates barriers to education, employment, economic growth, and stigmatisation, disastrously excluding them from society.
There has been a significant political commitment to eliminating NTDs in Africa in the last few decades. In April 2001, African Heads of State at the Abuja Summit recognised the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other related infectious diseases as a major health crisis and an exceptional threat to Africa’s development. The leaders called for the containment and reversal of other major infectious diseases as part of the continental agenda to promote poverty reduction, sustainable development and political security. The Abuja call is reinforced by the AU Agenda 2063: “The Africa We Want”, which envisions healthy and well-nourished African citizens free of all diseases, including NTDs.
In addition, the AU Commission, at its bi-annual coordination summit in Lusaka in July 2022, adopted the Continental Framework and Common African Position on NTDs, which serve as guiding documents for the fight against these diseases, calling for increased national funding to achieve the goal of elimination. This vision aligns with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3.3) to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2030. It is also in line with the World Health Organisation’s NTD Roadmap launched in 2020, which calls for a 90% reduction in the number of people requiring NTD interventions between 2010 and 2030.
To this end, the African Union (AU) Commission, in collaboration with the East African Community (EAC), and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Member States, is convening experts on NTD programming for a regional meeting to discuss mobilising domestic resources and strengthening programmes to combat neglected tropical diseases in the Eastern and Central African regions.
Objectives:
The main objective is to review the progress made by EAC and ECCAS Member States in domesticating the Continental Framework:
More specifically, the meeting aims to:
The expected results are as follows:
Report of the meeting on the implementation status of national programs for the control and elimination of NTDs.
A clear understanding of the funding gap for NTDs in the Member States.
Summary of successes, lessons learned, bottlenecks/challenges and opportunities documented during the implementation of the NTD control and elimination programs at the national level.
Roadmap for strengthening NTD programming in the region, including a coordination mechanism to provide advice and support to the Central and East Africa Member States for successfully adopting and implementing the Continental framework on the control and elimination of NTDs.
Expected outcome:
The expected results are as follows:
Report of the meeting on the implementation status of national programs for the control and elimination of NTDs.
A clear understanding of the funding gap for NTDs in the Member States.
Summary of successes, lessons learned, bottlenecks/challenges and opportunities documented during the implementation of the NTD control and elimination programs at the national level.
Roadmap for strengthening NTD programming in the region, including a coordination mechanism to provide advice and support to the Central and East Africa Member States for successfully adopting and implementing the Continental framework on the control and elimination of NTDs.
Participation at the event:
Attendance is by invitation only. Members of the press can submit their request to attend or interview the delegates to the following:
Prof. Julio Rakotonirina | Director of Health and Humanitarian Affairs Directorate, Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission| E-mail: JulioR@africa-union.org; cc: Abbasl@africa-union.org;
For further media inquiries, please contact:
Ms. Whitney Mwangi | Health Policy Communications and Advocacy Specialist, Directorate of Health and Humanitarian Affairs | Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission | E-mail: WhitneyM@africa-union.org
Mr. Gamal Eldin Ahmed A. Karrar | Senior Communication Officer | Information and Communications Directorate | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org