NNN Conference 2023

The annual conference of the Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network (NNN) was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 19-21 September. There was strong representation from the leprosy world. More than 100 attendees had connections with leprosy organisations, including ILEP Member associations and people’s organisations. Six of the seven ILEP Advisory Panel members were active participants in the Conference and built a strong connection with the Tanzania Leprosy Association and also representatives from the newly formed AFRA-NTD, a consortium of associations of persons affected by leprosy and other NTDs in Africa.

Leprosy-specific group meeting

80 participants joined the 3-hour leprosy-specific group meeting facilitated by Christine Fenenga (ILEP Lift Leprosy Learning project) and Roos Geutjes (InfoNTD). The topic for the meeting was innovative integrated capacity strengthening. The combination of an expert panel, a presentation on the OpenWHO framework, and break-out groups helped the topic to come alive and yield new ideas and experiences. InfoNTD has launched a map on its website onto which people are encouraged to load examples of integrated capacity strengthening in many countries: you can view it here, and readers are encouraged to add initiatives that they’re aware of.

ILEP Member delegates were also very engaged in the Skin NTDs mini-summit, the Disease Management Disability and Inclusion (DMDI) cross-cutting group, and the many Conference workshops and breakfast sessions.

NTD Innovation Prize 2023

The awarding of the annual NTD Innovation Prize is an annual conference highlight. The call for 2023 was for ideas that leverage mapping and spatial analysis to target NTD interventions. ILEP member American Leprosy Missions, in partnership with Novartis, awarded the $40,000 Prize to ATRAP (Action Towards Reducing Aquatic snail-borne Parasitic diseases), a citizen-science initiative to combat schistosomiasis and other snail-borne diseases. You’ll find a good description of citizen science, and of the ATRAP project, here.

Sponsorship

ILEP was once again a Platinum sponsor of the NNN Conference thanks to financial contributions by The Leprosy Mission, NLR, GLRA, Lepra and Fontilles. Several ILEP members also contributed to the cost of enabling eight people from AFRA-NTD organisations to attend the Conference and have two days of interaction with the ILEP Advisory Panel.