About us

ADP works to ensure that people in low- and middle-income countries have access to life-saving health technologies – medicines, vaccines and diagnostic tools – with an emphasis on those technologies that address tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases.

The partners

ADP brings together the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and PATH in a unique partnership that helps identify and strengthen capacity gaps in low- and middle-income countries in an innovative and integrated way.

Strengthening national health systems

In line with the overarching approach of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, ADP adopts a systemic and integrated perspective towards health system strengthening, aimed at the interlinked targets of eliminating communicable and infectious diseases and achieving real progress towards universal health coverage.

Supporting national responses to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of ensuring equitable access to health services, as well as increasing availability of medicines, vaccines and diagnostic tools in response to established and emerging health threats.

Regional, global and
South-South cooperation

Focusing on common challenges across different health systems, ADP leverages the experiences and expertise of its network of stakeholders to deliver both policy lessons and technical solutions.

Focus countries

ADP collaborates with stakeholders in a number of focus countries – Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Senegal, United Republic of Tanzania and Thailand
– to implement a range of capacity-strengthening interventions, which are in line with the ADP strategic approach of leveraging the expertise of its four core partners and working across sectors to help strengthen and harmonize policies, regulations and systems, as well as build the capacities of key people and institutions.

Uniting Efforts

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how close collaboration among multiple stakeholders can overcome major hurdles to the development, approval and delivery of new medicines, vaccines and diagnostic tools. But opportunities for such intense collaboration are rare, and access to new health technologies remains uneven.

Knowledge products

ADP knowledge products advance learning and contribute to improved policies, programmes and practices, as well as demonstrate human impact on the ground.

TDR Implementation research toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help teams conduct implementation research projects through a standard process to ensure reliable, high-quality results.

COVID-19 diagnostics procurement resource

An interactive tool to support procurement decisions by aggregating and streamlining publicly available information about the technical specifications, regulatory status and supply of COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

A pipeline analysis of new products for malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases

This working paper provides a comprehensive survey of new medicines, diagnostics and vaccines for malaria, TB and selected NTDs, that are currently in the pipeline for market entry by 2020.

Digital Health for Development Hub

A one-stop shop with technical, advisory and partnership support for scaling up digital health solutions.

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Planning for Access During Research and Development

27 August 2024

This Uniting Efforts-commissioned report explores the current discussions and issues around planning for equitable access to health technologies during the research and development (R&D) process. It documents the policies, practices and perspectives of global health funders, innovators and other key stakeholders. The findings reveal that while all stakeholders consulted agree that this is an area of interest and an opportunity to better ensure access, not all consider this part of their mandate or have explicit, consistent definitions of ‘access.’ Funders and innovators are increasingly considering developing access policies, but specifically ensuring that they start upstream during the R&D process isn’t as common. Among funders and innovators that do have access policies and/or practices during R&D, the levels of detail, activity and transparency varied. The report goes on to note that across all stakeholders, there are both potential opportunities as well as potential appetite to continue to improve planning for access during R&D for health technologies. Read the report to learn more about these findings and eight proposals for further consideration and discussion related to strengthening planning for access. These efforts have the potential to amplify the impact of the critical work already undertaken by innovators, funders and other key stakeholders to ensure that ministries of health, communities and patients can benefit from needed health technologies.