Bringing sectors together to beat NTDs and achieve health for all

This World Toilet Day, we’re happy to be sharing a blog originally published by the International Coalition for Trachoma Control, authored by Leah Wohlgemuth, Chair of the WASH Working Group and Regional Technical Advisor at Sightsavers and Professor KH Martin Kollmann, Chair of the DMDI Working Group and Senior Advisor NTDs at CBM.

At our recent Annual Meeting, RSTMH chose to focus on NTDs and cross-cutting issues dealt with in this blog, including disability and mental health, as well as conflict and the built environment.

We’re also thrilled to be hosting the next Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network (NNN) conference within ECTMIH 2019, next September in the UK.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of diseases that thrive in underdeveloped areas, where basic services, such as access to water, hygiene and sanitation or care are limited.

Their affects, such as disability, social exclusion and stigma, exacerbate development challenges and can keep whole communities trapped in a cycle of poverty.

The control and elimination of NTDs requires cross-sectoral collaboration to respond to these cross-cutting development issues that impede progress.

The BEST framework to tackle NTDs

In 2016, in order to define how stakeholders can work together to implement cross-cutting approaches, the Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network (NNN) published The BEST framework: A comprehensive approach towards NTDs.

This framework provides NTD stakeholders with a comprehensive conceptual approach for NTD programming and details the diverse cross-sectoral efforts needed to reach control, elimination and eradication targets. 

BEST, an acronym for Behaviour, Environment, Social inclusion and Treatment and care, moves away from mass-treatment-focused medical approaches, such as preventive chemotherapy, and integrates the broader causes and social effects of NTDs.

As a conceptual framework, BEST promotes human rights based comprehensive and inclusive NTD work that is based on cross-sectoral collaboration and an effective continuum of care from promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and care.

Sanitation and disability included

As such it includes the cross-cutting components of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as well as Disease Management, Disability and Inclusion (DMDI) as central to success and sustainability.

This paradigm shift requires engaging with and working holistically with a broad range of development stakeholders. It includes actively involving people affected by NTDs at all stages of programs, from conception and planning to implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and embedding cross-sectoral approaches and systems thinking into NTD work.

To support this transition a range of NNN cross-cutting groups, such as the WASH Working Group and the DMDI Working Group, have been established, bringing together a diverse range of stakeholders to share experiences, develop tools and identify preferred practices for comprehensive programming.

Through the DMDI Working Group, strategies are in development to improve and mainstream the inclusion of people affected by NTDs and other marginalised groups in all work. These complement and support other stakeholders’ efforts to design participatory and inclusive programmes in accordance with the BEST framework.

The voices of those affected by NTDs must be heard

A key priority of the WASH Working Group is the promotion of "inclusive WASH", an approach to increase universal access and the active and meaningful participation of affected people. Inclusive WASH recognises that marginalised and vulnerable people bring a unique insight to NTD programmes and should be consulted at all stages of NTD programmes to make them accessible and inclusive.

People who have experienced disease, disability, stigma and social exclusion take the programmes closer to the communities they are designed to benefit. This helps to ensure that infrastructure, such as hand and face washing stations and latrines are accessible and appropriate to people with disabilities.

Furthermore, because WASH activities to prevent diseases like trachoma, schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminths are often conducted in schools, careful planning is required to ensure children with disabilities, who are often excluded from schools, can access interventions and participate in these programmes.  

Sharing lessons between these groups has led to a stronger understanding of the importance of social inclusion and more systematic engagement of disabled persons and women in WASH and NTD programmes. Organisations seeking to use the BEST framework can learn from these experiences and engage in these platforms to increase programme effectiveness.

First global strategy on WASH and NTDs published in 2015

Through the NNN cross-cutting groups, key technical resources are also being developed to further support the NTD community to improve programming, policy and practices as well as other cross-cutting issues incorporated in the BEST framework.

Through its task groups, the WASH Working Group has contributed to developing tools with national level programme managers to support WASH and NTD integration.

This includes the first global strategy on water, sanitation & hygiene for accelerating and sustaining progress on neglected tropical diseases, published by WHO in 2015. The group is also developing a WASH/NTD toolkit in collaboration with WHO, which is scheduled for publication late 2018.