Combating neglected tropical diseases: Advocacy organisation, SpeakUpAfrica, pledges full support.

The pledge was made Sunday April 7. This was during the official launch of the WINs association in Yaounde. 

It was presided over by the Director of Diseases and Pandemic Control at the Ministry of Public Health, MINSANTE, Dr Etoundi Mballa, who represented the Minister Manaouda Malachie. 

The Resident Representative of the World Health Organisation, WHO, to Cameroon, the President of WINs, as well as other dignitaries lived the event. 

WINs is an association dedicated to the fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases, NTDs. It is made up of mainly women with multidisciplinary and cross-cutting expertise like medical doctors, researchers, anthropologists and sociologists amongst others.

WINs is resolutely committed to promoting the inclusion and active engagement of women in favour of more equitable health. The association aims to create innovative solutions to contribute to the commitment of WHO member states in their quest to eradicate NTDs by 2030 according to its roadmap.

The initiative also aims to identify areas of intervention to have a sustainable impact for scaling up at all levels integrating equalities. 

They intend to ensure better coordination, identify gaps and optimise resources through the setting up of an integrated mapping, valorise results, facilitate inclusion and active participation of women in the fight against NTDs as well as facilitate the implementation of innovative scientific research activities on NTDs.

Speaking during the launch of the association, the Executive Director of SpeakUpAfrica, Yacine Diop Djibo, underscored the importance of women to be part of the decision-making process with regards to their health across all levels.

She said that through WINs, they shall ensure the manifestation of collective engagement for the fight against NTDs which is fueled most at times by poverty.

“SpeakupAfrica is a partner that works with organisations from countries that are already doing the work. So, what we can bring to WINS is really to support them if needed in order to implement their activities but much more so to be able to expand this initiative to other countries. That would be what we would really hope to do but at the same time as an organization, we are committed to support WINS Cameroon to being a partner to them and to be able to implement their action plan that was presented at the ceremony today,” she explained.

Diop Djibo explained that through this initiative, they would be doing a lot of advocacy, promoting research in NTDs, promoting awareness, mobilising resources, and building networks. 

The idea, she stressed, is really to ensure the effective participation and engagement and mobilisation of women.

She added that although “significant progress in terms of raising awareness of this disease” has been made, there is still the need of “increasing amounts of engagement and participation from decision makers but they remain diseases that have to be prioritised, funded and eliminated and eradicated in the near future”.

Enter WINs President

Speaking earlier, the President of WINs, Prof Emilienne Epee, lamented over the fact that NTDs have had devastating consequences to the population and have been one of the leading causes of misery and deaths.

Prof Epee, who is also Head of the NTDs department at MINSANTE, disclosed that they have a mission to change the narrative for the affected population. 

She said the creation of the association was the start of the crucial mission to combat NTDs.

“We have a lot to do and the diseases are still rampant. So we thought that an action led by women multidisciplinary and multisectoral transversal actions will help scale up the fight against NTDs. We plan to work at the level of communities, how to impact the fact that women should participate in the decision making of the family in order to promote health,” Epee told reporters.

Minister’s representative lauds move

The representative of the Minister of Public Health, Dr Etoundi Mballa, lauded members of WINs for the creation of the association. Dr Etoundi seized the occasion to call for more mobilization and action.

He expressed optimism that through the creation of WINs, the fight against NTDs shall receive a fresh boost since “the ministry cannot do everything alone”.

Dr Etoundi said with collective efforts, several diseases shall be eradicated in near future. He urged them to make good use of their expertise. 

The MINSANTE official also urged them to seek "innovative, operational and realistic solutions to eliminate and eradicate NTDs".

It is worth mentioning that the WHO has identified 21 NTDs affecting nearly 1.5 billion people in the world’s poorest, most isolated and marginalised tropical communities. 

In Cameroon, 21 of these 16 diseases are found in the country’s 10 regions. Disproportionately, women and girls are the most affected as they have less access to medical care.