As the world unites today to recognise the World Neglected Tropical Day, it has never been more critical for all our partners to intensify efforts to end neglected tropical diseases. More than 1.7 billion people in the world still require regular preventative treatment for NTDs. They also affect more than 1.7 billion people around the world. These diseases typically thrive in rural and vulnerable communities with little or no access to sanitation, clean water, and healthcare, and cause needless pain and long-term disability – and death – for more than 170,000 people each year.
Around one-third of people affected by NTDs live in Africa, with Nigeria bearing the heaviest burden, accounting for approximately 25 per cent of the continent’s NTD cases. That represents about 168 million Nigerians who currently need treatment for one or more NTDs – a shocking 84 per cent of the population. The NTD crisis in Nigeria has critical impacts on well-being, education, and productivity. However, the net productivity gains resulting from eliminating the five most common NTDs in Nigeria by 2030 is staggering, conservatively estimated to be around $16.5bn.
The social impacts of disease elimination, including reductions in disease-related anxiety and pain, are equally important. When these social benefits are weighed alongside the gains associated with cured and avoided NTD cases, the cumulative benefit to the Nigerian economy is much greater. Increased productivity and freed-up time of caregivers, for example, would help contribute up to $25bn to the Nigerian economy from 2023 to 2030. Nigeria has managed to achieve a certain degree of progress in NTD elimination and currently ranks seventh in the group of countries in Africa that are working to address them.
The END Fund is deeply invested in efforts to drive further progress aimed at achieving Nigeria’s public health goals and bringing an end to the burden of NTDs in the country. Additional resources are needed across sectors, including the federal and state ministries of health, multilateral and development organisations, local NGOs, businesses, community-based associations, philanthropic organisations, and the media. We recognise the important role that the private sector plays in resource mobilisation to drive maximum reach and impact of NTD elimination efforts.
In achieving these goals, the END Fund embraces collaboration with the full spectrum of partners and stakeholders, including private-sector businesses. Only by working across sectors can Nigeria meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 3, and the World Health Organization NTD 2030 Roadmap goals.
The targets set by the WHO cannot be achieved by any one actor. Public-private partnerships are essential to help detect, treat, prevent, and eliminate NTDs; thereby playing an increasingly active role in driving change in Nigeria. Some of these partnerships to have been driven by the private sector include IHS Nigeria, which invested $50,000 to date to address common NTDs in Ekiti. This has been done through the END Fund’s funds-pooling mechanism, through which over 100,000 Nigerians have received NTD treatment. Also, Flour Mills of Nigeria in the 2021/2022 Fiscal Year invested $50,000 to tackle common NTDs across Nigeria. FMN supports the safe delivery of NTD treatments to affected communities through the delivery of tens of thousands of treatments to those most affected by onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminths.
OVH Energy Marketing invested approximately $30,000 toward a mass administration of medicine exercise in the Federal Capital Territory in 2022 and is funding a school and community-based education, enlightenment, and behavioral change campaign in Lagos and Rivers states in 2023. African Philanthropy Forum supported the END Fund through its Systems Change Fellowship programme and partnered with END Fund in co-financing the Nigerian NTD Economic Impact Study 2022.
Nigeria is at a critical juncture in its efforts to eliminate NTDs by 2030. Delaying elimination programmes or reducing the scale of ongoing MAM campaigns will not only reverse the gains from previous efforts but may also increase costs in the long run. The partnership between the public and private sectors, with a considerable initial investment to combat NTDs as quickly as possible rather than taking small steps over a long period, is more cost-effective and will ensure that we have the necessary tools and resources to access some of the most vulnerable communities and help eliminate NTDs once and for all.
- Oyetola Oduyemi is the Senior Director, Public Affairs at the END Fund
