The sixteenth (hybrid) meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held on 27–28 September 2022. Presentations were given on (i) progress since the last meeting from the Director, WHO regions and partners, (ii) the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on NTD programmes and (iii) global support to NTD programmes. A number of recommendations were made in relation to lessons learnt from COVID-19, on advocacy and financing, for specific NTDs and on diagnostics. Four departing members were appreciated for their contribution to the STAG-NTD. The next (seventeenth) meeting of the STAG-NTD will be held in 2023.

"The presence, or absence, of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) can be seen as a proxy for poverty and for the success of interventions aimed at reducing poverty. Today, coverage of the public-health interventions recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) against NTDs may be interpreted as a proxy for universal health coverage and shared prosperity - in short, a proxy for coverage against neglect. As the world's focus shifts from development to sustainable development, from poverty eradication to shared prosperity, and from disease-specific goals to universal health coverage, control of NTDs will assume an important role towards the target of achieving universal health coverage, including individual financial risk protection. Success in overcoming NTDs is a "litmus test" for universal health coverage against NTDs in endemic countries. The first WHO report on NTDs (2010) set the scene by presenting the evidence for how these interventions had produced results. The second report (2013) assessed the progress made in deploying them and detailed the obstacles to their implementation. This third report analyses for the first time the investments needed to achieve the scale up of implementation required to achieve the targets of the WHO Roadmap on NTDs and universal coverage against NTDs. INVESTING TO OVERCOME THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES presents an investment strategy for NTDs and analyses the specific investment case for prevention, control, elimination and eradication of 12 of the 17 NTDs. Such an analysis is justified following the adoption by the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in 2013 of resolution WHA6612 on neglected tropical diseases, which called for sufficient and predictable funding to achieve the Roadmap's targets and sustain control efforts. The report cautions, however, that it is wise investment and not investment alone that will yield success. The report registers progress and challenges and signals those that lie ahead. Climate change is expected to increase the spread of several vector-borne NTDs, notably dengue, transmission of which is directly influenced by temperature, rainfall, relative humidity and climate variability primarily through their effects on the vector. Investments in vector-borne diseases will avoid the potentially catastrophic expenditures associated with their control. The presence of NTDs will thereby signal an early warning system for climate-sensitive diseases. The ultimate goal is to deliver enhanced and equitable interventions to the most marginalized populations in the context of a changing public-health and investment landscape to ensure that all peoples affected by NTDs have an opportunity to lead healthier and wealthier lives."--Publisher's description.

The purpose of this publication is to report on the main subjects presented and discussed during the fourteenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD), which took place on 22-24 June 2021. The recommendations made by STAG-NTD members are also recorded. The target audience is represented by the global NTD community, including WHO staff in headquarters, Regional Offices and Country Offices, officials in Ministries of Health and other governmental institutions, partner organizations and other stakeholders.

The Global report on neglected tropical diseases 2023 provides a consolidated, up-to-date assessment of progress towards control, elimination and eradication of 20 diseases and disease groups (NTDs) globally, regionally and nationally. Progress is reported in the context of global commitments, strategies and targets set in the NTD road map 2021-2030. The document covers the first two years of implementation of the road map (2021 and 2022). The information presented is based primarily on epidemiological and programmatic data for interventions conducted in 2021 and gathered in 2022, but the report also describes a wide range of activities and accomplishments that were registered in both 2021 and 2022; comparisons are often made against 2020 and 2019 data, especially with regard to COVID-19 disruptions. It has four sections: Section 1 is an introduction. Section 2 presents the status of the global NTD response. Section 3 charts progress and developments against the three road map pillars. Section 4 sets out priority actions for 2023 and beyond to sustain implementation of the road map and its companion documents. Five annexes to the report provide information for 2021–2022 on regional progress (Annex 1), Weekly Epidemiology Record articles on NTDs (Annex 2), progress and challenges by disease (Annex 3), diagnostic target product profiles (Annex 4) and the status of commitments for donated medicines and health products (Annex 5).

The seventeenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, on 11–12 October 2023. The theme of the meeting was “Accelerating towards 2030”. The statements and statistics presented in the report may not represent the views, policies and official statistics of the Organization. Through a pre-recorded video, Dr Jérôme Salomon (WHO Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases) welcomed participants to the meeting. He said that NTDs are one of the most formidable health challenges. They afflict one billion individuals in the most vulnerable populations, miring them in poverty and desolation. This meeting was a key opportunity to steer collective efforts towards transformative solutions and strengthen collaboration among governments, organizations and individuals. The elimination of NTDs underscores the indispensable role of robust and adaptable health systems on the way to universal health coverage. Control of NTDs is about human empowerment, children’s education and people’s participation in their communities. By eliminating NTDs, we foster a legacy of health and optimism, and exemplify the importance of global unity and collective action. Together, we can all catalyse change, ensure a world where nobody needlessly suffers from these afflictions and health is genuinely a universal right.