2021-2022 Priorities

Thank you for your continued support for and engagement with the Global Platform – Uniting Efforts for Innovation, Access and Delivery (Uniting Efforts) during these difficult times.

A few days after the Second Global Dialogue on 2-3 February 2020, the world as we knew it fundamentally changed, forcing us to adapt to new ways of working, partnering and convening. We are grateful for your collaboration – which helped make possible the launches of our last two knowledge products and accompanying webinars in 2020 – and for the positive feedback we have received from many of you. While we adapted our ways of working during the pandemic, COVID-19 has given renewed impetus to greater collaboration and partnership and the issues of innovation, access and delivery.

The three core partners of Uniting Efforts – the Government of Japan, the UNDP-led Access and Delivery Partnership (ADP) and the GHIT Fund – are pleased to share an update on the platform’s strategic priorities for the rest of 2021 and 2022.

Since the launch of the global platform in 2019, Uniting Efforts has driven both high-level as well as technical conversations on the need to increase access and delivery to health technologies for neglected diseases and developed networks and practical resources to equip partners with new tools, connections and knowledge to strengthen responses and accelerate progress. Together, we have started to shape a common agenda for health technology access and delivery for neglected diseases that we hope will also be helpful to other health priorities and diseases, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is to create helpful tools and space for dialogue and partnership for a diverse and inclusive range of stakeholders and to amplify partners’ complementary and relevant efforts.

Building on this mission and work, Uniting Efforts will focus on four core priorities for 2021-2022:

  1. Convening and facilitating dialogue among key stakeholders and partners to increase access and delivery of medicines and other essential health technologies.

  2. Collaborating with the WHO NTD Department, develop a toolkit for NTDs national investment cases.

  3. Research and publish two knowledge products to support planning for access and delivery earlier within R&D processes.

  4. Research and publish a knowledge product to improve the procurement of health technologies for NTDs.

We look forward to your participation and input in the next steps for the platform, and to advancing this work to facilitate access to health technologies.