Sightsavers
GLIDE is currently working with Sightsavers to develop and trial a low-cost, high-impact strategy for addressing vector-borne disease transmission across borders.
GLIDE-Sightsavers focus
Onchocerciasis is the primary disease focus for GLIDE and Sightsavers. However, the innovative entomological monitoring and evaluation tool developed by the project will test an effective and ethical technique for determining onchocerciasis transmission, which can be used at scale. The project will determine onchocerciasis transmission in the cross-border areas of:
- Mozambique
- Malawi
- Ghana
- Cote d’Ivoire.
The project’s refinement of an entomological trap and development of a programmatic deployment strategy to replace the current unreliable and ethically questionable method of human landing capture, will increase understanding of onchocerciasis transmission in the project countries and beyond. The project will also be of direct benefit to the cross-border areas it is working in, using the knowledge gained on disease transmission to inform treatment strategies.
The project will strengthen data collection, analysis and laboratory capacity, embedding and country-led expertise and building sustainability.
The Country Health Information Platform
Also in partnership with Sightsavers, GLIDE is supporting the development of the Country Health Information Platform (CHIP), an electronic platform designed to enable health ministries and stakeholders to share and exchange subnational programme data in support of the NTD control and elimination goals. The platform aims to provide entities such as National Onchocerciasis Elimination Committees and stakeholders throughout Africa with the evidence they need to:
- Successfully set targets
- Plan activities
- Mobilise resources more efficiently
- Target inventions appropriately to control or eliminate each neglected tropical disease
The platform has been piloted in five countries – Cameroon, Malawi, Kenya, Guinea and Democratic Republic of Congo – in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in each country and with funding from the Ascend Learning and Innovation Fund, Sightsavers, ESPEN, and Standard Co. CHIP dashboards are now available for 41 countries of the WHO African Region on ESPEN PORTAL. CHIP encourages country programmes and stakeholders to be more frequent users of national data submitted to the WHO.
