Uniting Efforts: Linking innovation, access and delivery for a common goal

By Access and Delivery Partnership

Photo: Uniting Efforts for Innovation, Access & Delivery

For too long there has been a lack of attention to and funding for the development of new health technologies needed to address many of the neglected diseases that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people. And when medicines, vaccines and diagnostics are developed, they often do not reach those communities who need them most. The current global context of multiple crises presents a further challenge for greater investments in neglected diseases.

Research and development (R&D) funders, innovators, governments, civil society and other actors involved in the innovation, access and delivery of health technologies all have critical roles to play in meeting this challenge.

Uniting Efforts for Innovation, Access and Delivery is the global platform bringing together these key stakeholders with the objective of promoting dialogue and cooperation for new tools and strategies that will simultaneously inform both the R&D and innovation process, and access and delivery initiatives. The platform is a joint initiative of the Government of Japan, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-led Access and Delivery Partnership and the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund.

Uniting Efforts aims to provide a global forum to define a common vision towards ‘health technology delivery preparedness’ for neglected diseases and patients in LMICs.

The continuing unequal access to COVID-19 vaccines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) illustrates the need to ensure that global cooperation efforts in the development of health technologies and investments in robust health systems to deliver them must come together to achieve equitable and timely access. Consolidating an agenda for action across the major stakeholders within the continuum of innovation, access and delivery will be a critical contribution towards the achievement of both universal health coverage and pandemic preparedness.

Photo: Uniting Efforts for Innovation, Access & Delivery

A priority issue addressed by Uniting Efforts is the need for sustainable financing to ensure access to and delivery of health technologies. Neglected diseases have long been left behind when it comes to domestic and international funding. In 2020, Uniting Efforts launched the Discussion paper on the Landscape of Funding and Financing Opportunities for Access and Delivery of Health Technologies for Neglected Diseases. The paper documented increasingly downward trends in financing for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), and identified a range of innovative and sustainable financing strategies.

Following up on the recommendations, Uniting Efforts partners are collaborating with the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO) on a toolkit for developing investment cases aimed at improving financing options for addressing NTDs.

The Ministry of Health in Ghana has agreed to pilot an investment case of three priority diseases in the country: leprosy, onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. The investment case will help provide the economic and development rationale for investing in evidence-based and cost-effective interventions with regard to these priority NTDs in the country. The investment case will also be an important advocacy tool to generate new resources and help the government, donors and other partners prioritize financing that is aligned with national priorities.

In the current context of reduced global health funding, the national investment case will be an important means to identify and unlock new financing opportunities, including domestic sources. The pilot investment case in Ghana will also provide a model that can be adapted and replicated in other countries, to drive informed financing decisions related to neglected diseases, and contribute to the implementation of the WHO NTD Roadmap 2021–2030.

The lack of planning and well-defined policies, as well as coordination among different actors, has been identified as a major challenge hindering access to and delivery of health technologies. Uniting Efforts is undertaking analysis aimed at distilling lessons to improve the planning for access and delivery in the early stages of the R&D process. A survey of leading funders, innovators and stakeholders in LMICs will inform the review of access policies and practices within R&D processes, and identify lessons and good practices for an end-to-end integration of access strategies.

The goal of this work is to inform the community of funders, product developers and access stakeholders about the diverse approaches that can be adopted to integrate access considerations throughout the R&D process. There is an obvious and common interest in enhancing the ability of product developers, funders and access stakeholders to better understand how access goals can be met. It is anticipated that the good practices and success factors identified will generate an agenda for concrete measures to effectively connect innovation processes with on-the-ground realities for access and delivery.

Another area that Uniting Efforts is working on is the procurement and supply of NTD health technologies, as this has been recognized as an area that is highly fragmented. Uniting Efforts is looking at the lessons that can be learned from the procurement and supply of technologies for other global health challenges, such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and how they can be applied to NTDs.

“We know that the global community can come together very quickly for the common good; we have seen this happen with the development of COVID-19 vaccines. We now need to make sure that access and delivery considerations are also embedded in the R&D process. We need to invest in access and delivery to ensure a seamless transition from R&D to delivery,” notes Dr. Osamu Kunii, Chief Executive Officer at the GHIT Fund. “The Uniting Efforts platform affords us a new way of working together in alignment from the beginning. The GHIT Fund will continue to work with UNDP and the Government of Japan on this important mission.”

Uniting Efforts: Linking innovation, access and delivery for a common goal

Further information:

Uniting Efforts for Innovation, Access and Delivery

Uniting Efforts, ‘Discussion Paper on the Landscape of Funding and Financing Opportunities for Access and Delivery of Health Technologies for Neglected Diseases’, 6 November 2020

Uniting Efforts, ‘Guidance Note: for the development of national investment cases for neglected diseases’, 28 October 2020

Uniting Efforts, ‘Challenges and opportunities for innovation, access and delivery of health technologies: Why a global dialogue? Background paper’, 30–31 January 2019

This is part of a collection of impact stories highlighting the work of the Access and Delivery Partnership in ensuring access to health technologies for those in need. For more information and to read additional impact stories, please visit the ADP website.