The Task Force For Global Health Inc

Funded principally by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the NTD-SC supports Operational Research (OR) to eliminate neglected tropical diseases that threaten the lives and well-being of more than one billion people in some of the world's poorest communities, serving as the Secretariat for the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD). As of 2024, the NTD-SC managed a portfolio of more than 330 OR projects spanning 60 countries, and targeting all five neglected tropical diseases amenable to preventive chemotherapy: lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, STH, schistosomiasis and trachoma, as well as other NTDs such as podoconiosis, leprosy and leishmaniasis. OR projects are designed to address challenges that prevent programs from achieving disease control and elimination goals and to inform World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations and guidance for NTD programs. In 2024, COR-NTD convened NTD Operational Research meetings in New Delhi, India and Brisbane, Australia in collaboration with regional WHO offices, ministries of health and local research partners, and completed the planning for a pioneering Africa-based operational research meeting on NTDs, in partnership with the African Research Network on NTDs, to take place in Kigali, Rwanda in early 2025. These regional conferences bring together researchers and country program managers and implementers to address the challenges faced by NTD programs that prevent the shared goal of eliminating these infections. With support from USAID in 2024, the NTD-SC also issued calls for proposals to support research focused on migrant and mobile populations and continued to support the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD) Small Grants Program. ARNTD manages a portfolio of research projects carried out by young African scientists at early stages of their careers and in 2024 the ARNTD call for proposals was also expanded to mid-career researchers for the first time. During the period, the NTD-SC also conducted a competitive process to identify Africa-based partners to transition the procurement of research supplies from a US-based to Africa-based supply chain.

The Public Health Informatic Institute (PHII) provided direct services to the U.S. public health system through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This funding supported PHII and its partners in efforts to increase the capacity of public health informaticians and other public health leaders and practitioners to improve the collection, management, and use of information and information technology for protecting and improving health and reducing disparities. Key activities included providing workforce development and online tools to state and local health departments on the subject of planning and initiating ongoing data modernization efforts; providing training to public health professionals in essential informatics competencies; creating a suite of new training for public health professionals sustaining daily operations of jurisdictional immunization information systems. PHII has continued to be involved in a project involving a community-centered approach to community data distribution and collection in the U.S. Additionally, PHII is an ongoing partner in a collaborative Gates Foundation-funded project that collects data to reduce childhood mortality worldwide; this project is working on mortality surveillance activities at sites in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, PHII continued its involvement in a Global Fund-funded project to strengthen early warning surveillance systems in several high-priority countries in Africa and Asia. This project intends to prepare and protect the global health landscape against future pandemics or other public health emergencies.

International Trachoma Initiative

Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET)

Polio Eradication

Vacine Safety

Other Programs