Note: we initially targeted an application window of 4 weeks; however, we have now expanded that to 8 weeks and will be accepting proposals until March 25, 2019.
The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports global efforts to control, eliminate, and eradicate NTDs. The team focuses on seven of the ten London Declaration diseases, as well as on cross-cutting efforts to improve the quality and impact of NTD programs through a variety of levers, including data systems. Strengthening NTD data systems and ensuring use of quality data for programmatic decision-making at the country, regional, and global levels are priority components of these cross-cutting efforts.
National NTD programs rely on timely and quality data to make decisions throughout the duration of the program. The quality of these data ultimately depends on the systems, tools, and processes at the points-of-collection, collation, and analysis at sub-national and national levels. Many of the current data-related tools and approaches used by NTD programs are sub-optimal and hinder the ability of the national program to deliver. Specifically, a limited NTD data system can lead to an inaccurate understanding of program performance and reduced likelihood of achieving control and elimination goals. Moreover, poor quality country data and data systems introduces delay and inaccuracies in regional and global reporting, drug forecasting, and inefficient allocation of resources.
This Grand Challenge seeks innovative ideas for how to improve the quality, completeness, and timeliness of routine NTD data and ensure programmatic decision-making is based on the best available data. Such outcomes will help target interventions to all at-risk populations and achieve high intervention coverage and maximal impact on infection and morbidity.