World NTD Day 2026 webinar: Integrating NTDs into health systems

To mark World NTD Day 2026, we held a webinar about advancing NTDs by integrating them into primary health care and securing sustainable funding. We co-hosted the webinar with the African Union Commission, WHO ESPEN, The END Fund, Kikundi Community of Practice, and Speak Up Africa.

2 February 2026.

Speakers

Gebreselassie Agazi Fitsum, programme manager for the Kikundi Community of Practice for NTD managers across Africa, moderated the session. Speakers included:

  • Professor Julio Rakotonirina (Director of Health and Humanitarian Affairs, African Union Commission): Opening remarks
  • H.E. Amb. Amma Twum-Amoah (Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission): The political case for integration and investment
  • Inas Mubarak Yahia Abbas (Head of Division, Health Systems, Diseases and Nutrition, African Union Commission): The African Union’s strategic vision on neglected tropical diseases
  • Joy Phumaphi (Executive Director, African Leaders Malaria Alliance): Integrating NTDs into health systems
  • Dr Elizabeth Juma (Team Lead, WHO’s ESPEN – Expanded Special Program for Elimination of NTDs): The role of ESPEN
  • Yaye Sophietou Diop (Partnership and Development Director, Speak Up Africa): The role of advocacy and media in the fight against NTDs
  • Anthony Kerkula Bettee (National Program Manager, Liberia Ministry of Health): Liberia’s experience of NTD integration

Watch the webinar

Insights from the webinar

Opening remarks

Professor Julio Rakotonirina (Director of Health and Humanitarian Affairs, African Union Commission)

Professor Julio opened by describing the NTD challenge across Africa. He described the important shift from fragmented disease responses to a unified, continent-led approach. With 2026 as the midpoint toward the African Union’s 2030 elimination goals, he called for renewed commitment.

Africa bears 30% of the global burden of neglected tropical diseases and every country in the African Union faces at least one endemic neglected tropical disease.

He stressed the need to integrate NTD interventions into primary health care, guided by data-driven, climate-sensitive planning. On funding, he highlighted the need for this work to be backed by domestic funding, rather than external funding.

This integration must be supported by predictable and predominantly national funding to ensure long-term sustainability.

The political case for integration and investment

H.E. Amb. Amma Twum-Amoah (Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission)

Her Excellency shared that with fewer than 4 years remaining to meet 2030 targets, the time to translate commitment into coordinated action is now. The commissioner reframed the case for elimination as more than just a health issue.

NTDs are not only a health issue, they are a development issue. They reduce productivity, perpetuate inequality, and weaken the health systems upon which our societies depend.

The commissioner warned against relying on external donors and stressed the need for African ownership of NTD funding.

While global partnerships remain important, reliance on external funding leaves programmes vulnerable. African governments must prioritise predictable domestic investment in primary and community health systems. Without reliable funding, NTDs programs will remain exposed and hard-won gains will be fragile.

The commissioner also called for climate resilience, regional cooperation, and more African-led research and innovation. She also said equity must be a guiding principle.

The poorest, most remote, and marginalised communities continue to bear the greatest burden, and our policies must remove financial, geographical, and social barriers to ensure no one is left behind.

The African Union’s strategic vision on neglected tropical diseases

Inas Mubarak Yahia Abbas (Head of Division, Health Systems, Diseases and Nutrition, African Union Commission): The African Union’s strategic vision on neglected tropical diseases

Inas Yahya presented the AU Roadmap to 2030 and Beyond, a policy document endorsed by ministers and member states in 2024 that aims to end AIDS, TB, malaria, and NTDs, improve maternal health, and address non-communicable diseases in Africa.

This framework promotes integrated services for HIV, TB, malaria, and other infectious diseases, built on one plan, one budget, and one approach.

She emphasised that countries should dedicate 15% of national budgets to health, as called for in the Abuja Declaration. She also noted that NTDs often lack a specific budget line in primary health care.

She highlighted several recommendations from the annual African Union Commission’s annual NTD experts meeting, including developing national climate change mitigation plans that incorporate NTDs, prioritising domestic resource mobilisation, strengthening cross-border collaboration, creating dedicated budget lines for primary health care, and promoting technology transfer and knowledge sharing among member states.

Integrating NTDs into health systems

Joy Phumaphi (Executive Director, African Leaders Malaria Alliance)

Joy Phumaphi called for NTDs to become a central priority in health, development, financing, and political frameworks. She outlined three key points:

Integration with malaria and other priority programs is essential, not optional. Malaria, NTDs, maternal and child health, and nutrition all affect the same communities and households, yet responses remain siloed and duplicative.

This fragmentation costs money, it wastes human resources, it weakens impact.

NTDs serve as a stress test for health systems. Where NTDs persist, it is often because health systems are weakest, in hard-to-reach rural areas, border communities and informal settlements. Addressing NTDs, therefore, means building the very infrastructure needed for all health challenges.

If we build health systems capable of eliminating neglected tropical diseases, we build health systems capable of responding to malaria, HIV/AIDS, pandemics, and any future health threat.

Africa’s youth are a powerful but underused force. With the right training and support, youth corps can lead integrated health services. They can help prevent disease, fight stigma, and connect communities with health systems. She ended her speech by saying:

Africa does not lack solutions. What we need is enhanced political will, enhanced domestic ownership, and decisive action.

Ongoing support for NTD integration: the role of WHO ESPEN

Dr Elizabeth Juma (Team Lead, WHO’s ESPEN – Expanded Special Program for Elimination of NTDs)

Dr. Juma provided the technical perspective on how WHO’s Expanded Special Programme for Elimination of NTDs (ESPEN) supports integration. She drew on lessons from the development of the WHO NTD roadmap, where stakeholders were asked which health system building block mattered most for sustainability.

Leadership and governance was the most important health system building block for determining sustainability. Leadership and governance, not even financing. Why? Because that is where we will get all our integrative approaches implemented.

ESPEN’s third-generation strategy focuses on 4 main areas:

  • embedding NTDs into national health policies
  • supporting integrated service delivery
  • advocating for integrated surveillance and laboratory systems
  • integrating supply chains with national logistics systems

She shared practical examples from the past 18 months. In South Sudan, vaccination has been integrated with mass treatment for schistosomiasis. In Madagascar, they have combined mass treatment for lymphatic filariasis with polio and vitamin A campaigns in late 2024. Her main message was clear:

Vertical programmes alone cannot sustain elimination.

The role of media and advocacy

Yaye Sophietou Diop (Partnership and Development Director, Speak Up Africa)

Sophie Diop spoke about visibility, public messaging, and media engagement. She reported on the first continental media forum on NTDs, held in Cotonou, Benin, with the Africa Media Network for the Promotion of Health and Environment (REMAPSEN). Nearly 70 journalists from over 45 African countries joined health experts and NTD programme managers. The forum’s main finding was:

NTDs remain largely invisible in national media landscapes across Africa. This invisibility directly undermines political prioritisation, domestic funding, and long-term sustainability.

The forum also showed that African journalists want to cover NTDs. They need timely data, trusted experts, and human stories that link NTDs to wider development issues. Journalists said their role is to track government commitments and question how budgets are used. They see the media as a tool for holding leaders to account, not just for sharing information.

Ending NTDs is not only a technical or financial challenge, it’s also a narrative challenge.

Liberia’s NTD integration experience

Anthony Kerkula Bettee (National Program Manager, Liberia Ministry of Health)

Anthony Betty described Liberia’s move from separate, individual NTD programmes to a single, integrated national approach.

Before integration, NGOs and donors sent support straight to communities. This bypassed the Ministry of Health and created parallel vertical programmes.

Since 2012, integration has led to:

  • consolidated disease management
  • a single technical working group meeting monthly
  • joint medicine procurement for mass drug administration
  • NTD data integrated into the national health management information system.

All partners and NGOs now have an integrated platform. The Ministry of Health now has one master plan for all the NTDs.

The journey has not been without obstacles. Key challenges included:

  • weak human resource capacity, with health workers lacking specialised NTD training and consistent supervision
  • continued reliance on donor funding
  • supply chain and logistics bottlenecks when merging medicines into the national system
  • infrastructure constraints limiting access to remote populations
  • gaps in electronic health data that are only now being addressed.

Cross-cutting themes and key takeaways

Several themes appeared throughout the webinar:

Integration is no longer optional: NTD services must be embedded within primary health care rather than managed through vertical programmes.

Domestic financing is critical: With the global health financing landscape changing, governments in Africa must create dedicated budget lines for NTDs and move toward the Abuja Declaration’s 15% health spending target.

Data drives progress: Robust surveillance, integrated health information systems, and evidence-based planning are essential for monitoring progress and advocating for resources.

Political leadership matters most: Leadership and governance were identified as the single most important factor for sustainability.

Equity must guide all decisions: The most vulnerable, remote, and marginalised communities bear the greatest burden and must be at the centre of elimination strategies.

Media and advocacy are strategic levers: NTD visibility in national media and political conversation is essential for securing domestic funding and sustained political commitment.

Youth engagement is an untapped opportunity: Young people across the continent can serve as champions of integrated health service delivery with proper support and training.