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Access and Delivery Partnership: TB, malaria and NTD health technologies for those in need

Impact stories

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04 Investing in health and human security

As the world faces multiple interconnected crises—in health, environment and security—the collective global commitment to ‘leave no one behind’ is more important than ever.

The lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic are becoming increasingly obvious: the record pace set in the R&D of the multiple COVID-19 vaccines was not accompanied by structures and frameworks to enable timely and equitable access in all countries. This understanding is critical for the design of an improved response to COVID-19 and to prevent future pandemics.

The continuing partnership between the GHIT Fund and the UNDP-led ADP is well positioned to respond. The strategic aim of the partnership has long aimed at an integrated approach that links accelerated R&D and product development with capacity support on the ground to ensure access and delivery to those in need. ADP’s focus on strengthening institutional and technical capacities of national health systems and supporting national responses to COVID-19 and other outbreaks and pandemics are, in fact, two sides of the same coin: each drives access to and delivery of affordable and quality-assured health technologies towards the achievement of UHC and progress towards human security.

It is vital that national health systems are enabled to provide continued essential services for the population even during a crisis. A well-functioning health system remains the strongest enabler of UHC, and a critical means of reducing inequalities. Put simply, the measures taken now to strengthen overall health systems resilience, including through ADP’s work, will contribute towards sustainable human development. This aligns with the UNDP Strategic Plan 2022–2025 and the UNDP HIV and Health Strategy 2022–2025, both of which acknowledge the need to build resilient and sustainable health systems as the foundation for achieving the mutually reinforcing goals of health, sustainable development and human security.

The lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely remain centre stage. The pandemic put health systems under tremendous stress, reiterating the underlying need for enhanced capacities to perform essential health functions.

The ADP’s focus on strengthening health systems to ensure enhanced access to and delivery of new health technologies is more critical today than ever. Underpinning ADP’s strategic focus in the future will be:

Strengthening disease control for TB, malaria and NTDs

ADP is sustaining and advancing its long-standing commitment to supporting national disease control programmes against TB, malaria and NTDs. Maintaining the most critical prevention activities and care services is essential to reduce the indirect impact of the pandemic and other health crises on poor and other vulnerable populations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed decades of progress on poverty, health care and education in some settings, jeopardizing gains towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Given the current need to ensure delivery of and equitable access to safe and effective COVID-19 tests, vaccines and antiviral treatments, ADP is supporting countries to ensure their timely deployment through integrated planning, multisectoral coordination, strengthened regulatory capacity and supply chain improvements. ADP has helped countries to pivot quickly to respond to the pandemic, and this provides the basis for further support on pandemic preparedness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation of health systems, including through improved models of health service delivery. ADP will focus its support to countries on strengthening digital health policy frameworks, governance structures and health workforce capacities to ensure local ecosystem readiness, and identifying digital health interventions that are appropriate, cost-effective and sustainable. ADP will continue to strengthen supply chains through digitization, enhance drug safety monitoring through the use of digital applications, and scale up digital health tools and telehealth systems to promote equitable access to essential health services.
Uniting Efforts has become a global platform to promote country preparedness for innovation, access and delivery of new health technologies. The platform will provide a means of fostering innovative partnerships to promote effective global and national collaboration across the innovation, access and delivery value chain. Uniting Efforts is poised to play a critical role in promoting the new approach, acknowledging that global health security is essential for realizing human security and sustainable development. This approach acknowledges the need for strengthened and resilient national health systems, and global cooperation on prevention and preparedness for future outbreaks and pandemics.
“We must not ignore the important lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic: strengthened capacities to access and deliver new health technologies are equally important as advances in R&D and product development to driving effective and sustainable responses to public health priorities—from the COVID-19 pandemic to maintenance of essential health services. This validates the Government of Japan’s support for both the GHIT Fund and for ADP, as interlinked and complementary projects; investing in R&D alongside health systems-strengthening ensures greater on-the-ground impacts.
We hope that a new phase of the GHIT Fund and ADP partnership—building on the 10 years of results and achievements—will continue to amplify the strategy of integrating innovation, access and delivery of health technologies, with the goal of achieving universal health coverage and human security.”
— Dr. Osamu Kunii, Chief Executive Officer, GHIT Fund, and Dr. Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director, HIV, Health and Development Group, UNDP
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