THE GLOBAL ELIMINATION OR ERADICATION ACCELERATION REVIEW (GEAR)

The GEAR process was designed by a small team from the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) and Bridges to Development. It is an independent review and evaluation method aiming to assess elimination and eradication (E&E) programs based on what has and has not worked in past disease elimination efforts. The work began with the development of a ‘white paper’ reviewing disease elimination and eradication efforts which identified seven key risks to disease E&E programs. These findings were analyzed and then presented for review at the Coalition for Operational Research on NTDs (COR-NTD) Annual Meeting (October 2020).

The WHO 2030 NTD Roadmap aims to eliminate and eradicate twelve diseases by 2030, and achieving this vision will require the neglected tropical diseases (NTD) community to take a proactive and critical look at past experiences (both successes and failures), improve learning across diseases and programs, and develop tools to help identify weaknesses in order to build stronger programs. The GEAR method and related tools have been intended to stimulate critical thinking and foster continuous learning in order to keep the twelve NTD E&E initiatives included in the WHO Roadmap on track to meet their goals.