A New Commitment in the Fight to Eradicate Neglected Tropical Diseases

With a global pandemic still raging, other health threats can fall off the radar. But funders working to eradicate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have stayed the course on major, unified efforts that have moved the goal of elimination closer to reality.

A recent development on that front is a three-year, $22.5 million commitment from the Helmsley Charitable Trust in a fund launched by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and administered by the END Fund. Here are a few things to know about a group of diseases that affect more than 1.7 billion people globally, the ways in which global institutions have united to permanently stamp them out, and how Helmsley’s commitment aims to advance that work.

What are neglected tropical diseases?

Rare in wealthy countries, NTDs are typically found in tropical areas where people live in poverty and are hampered by limited healthcare options and a lack of basics like clean water. A diverse group of 20 conditions that include river blindness, rabies and leprosy, NTDs are often complex and challenging to control. Beyond the devastating health and social consequences, they also contribute to major economic losses in places where the diseases are endemic.

A united effort toward eradication

Global institutions — and their funders — have closed ranks to make NTDs a memory during the past two decades. A landmark 2012 London Declaration on NTDs launched a unified effort across sectors, countries and disease communities to push for increased investment and greater action. The Kigali declaration built upon those goals, awarding broad agency to parties working to meet the targets set out in the World Health Organization’s 2030 roadmap to eradication, and drawing signatories ranging from national governments to pharmaceutical companies and academia.

Helmsley and its partners hope their collaboration will encourage the kind of new and creative action they’re modeling in the lead-up to the Kigali Summit on Malaria and NTDs in June 2022.

Helmsley’s commitment

The Helmsley Charitable Trust’s recent three-year, $22.5 million commitment is specifically aimed at eliminating NTDs in three countries under significant disease burden: Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan. It also aims to accelerate the treatment and elimination of two diseases: river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or LF.

Trustee Walter Panzirer said that Helmsley’s commitment fits with the organization’s goals in several ways — as an overall quality-of-life issue for vulnerable populations, as part of the trust’s holistic sub-Saharan Africa portfolio, and as a way of leveraging significant drug donations from the pharmaceutical industry. It also allows Helmsley to operate as an engaged partner in larger efforts to tackle these stubborn public health challenges.

“As an organization, the Helmsley Charitable Trust strives to improve the quality of life for individuals living in remote rural areas, individuals trapped in a cycle of poverty, and those suffering from various diseases, whether it be non-communicable diseases or neglected tropical diseases,” Panzirer said.

Within Helmsley’s sub-Saharan Africa portfolio, he continued, “this means taking a holistic approach to funding interventions,” including efforts to stamp out NTDs, and driving investments in “everything from the mapping and surveillance of disease prevalence to promoting innovative prevention strategies.”

Panzirer said that Helmsley recognizes the value of engaging with other partners and donors in work that “cannot be done alone” in places like Ethiopia, where it “has long supported community health interventions.” Helmsley expects funding to support a comprehensive national approach to eliminating diseases that cause preventable suffering and hinder development.

Reaching the last mile

Helmsley’s commitment went toward the Reaching the Last Mile Fund (RLMF), a 10-year, multi-donor fund launched by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, and administered by the END Fund.

The $100 million global partnership has attracted investments from philanthropists, governments and NGOs working toward the goal of eliminating river blindness and LF. Partners are encouraged to actively pursue change through innovative financing and interventions. Other philanthropic backers include two global health heavyweights: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and ELMA Philanthropies.

The fund is part of Reaching the Last Mile (RLM), a portfolio of global health programs aimed at ending preventable diseases that affect the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. Drawing on personal commitments from the crown prince, work focuses on areas that sit at the intersection of impact, collaboration and innovation, with a specific focus on “reaching the last mile” — disease elimination.

Reaching the END

While it’s part of RLM, the Reaching the Last Mile Fund is administered by the END Fund, a U.S.-based private philanthropic initiative focused on ending five of the world’s most rampant and neglected NTDs. Its community of “activist-philanthropists” provide private funding for cross-sector collaborations to meet those goals. Since its founding in 2012, the END Fund and its partners have distributed more than 1 billion treatments across 31 countries, and trained more than 3 million health workers to combat NTDs.

Alan McCormick, a member of the END Fund’s board, said that Helmsley’s investment comes at an especially important moment. “With the elimination of NTDs not only in sight, but possible within our lifetimes, we must act with urgency and inspire more people to invest in this movement in order to reach the finish line.”

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