FACT SHEET ON GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR CHRONIC DISEASES
November 16, 2009
GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR CHRONIC DISEASES
Major national research funding agencies from around the world convened to announce the formation of a new global health initiative called the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD). The launch of the GACD occurred on June 15, 2009, in Seattle, Washington and coincided with the meeting there of Heads of International Research Organizations.
The Alliance seeks to coordinate research activities that address on a global scale the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. The Alliance members will collectively seek to identify common approaches to develop the evidence base needed to guide policy, develop and share best practices for fighting chronic diseases, and foster a sustainable and significant reduction of illness, disability, and death around the world.
The GACD is the first of its kind, for no alliance of major research funding agencies currently exists to address the specific needs of chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs).
The GACD will focus on the CNCDs in low to middle income countries and low income populations of more developed countries to support collaborative, coordinated research on low cost interventions and to build capacity in research and health care delivery.
The Alliance has a global reach, bringing together an initial formative group of major national research funding agencies. These agencies, together, represent about 80 percent of all public research funding in the world. Member agencies are:
-Australia’s National Health Medical Research Council
-Canadian Institutes of Health Research
-China’s Ministry of Health in association with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
-The U.K.’s Medical Research Council
-The U.S.’s National Institutes of Health, specifically its National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Fogarty International Center (FIC)
The Indian Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Council of South Africa have been invited to join as founding members.
The National Biomedical Research Institute (Q-BRI) for the State of Qatar and the National Institute of Mental Health of the US National Institutes of Health have been invited to join as members. The initial group is expected to expand to involve other research funders, including philanthropic foundations, from around the world with an interest in the Alliance’s agenda.
Industry has an important role in solving some of these problems and the GACD intends to work with the commercial sector, ensuring the public- private aspect of this venture.
The GACD has consulted with the World Health Organization (WHO) and has invited them to participate in an advisory capacity. WHO has expressed support for the creation of the GACD.
The World Heart Federation, the National Institute for Medical Research of Tanzania and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO-WHO) have been invited to participate as Alliance Partners, (Alliance Partners are organizations which are strongly committed to Alliance objectives and values, but do not have health research funding as their primary objective).
BACKGROUND
The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases takes its origin in the Grand Challenges Partnership first announced in Nature in 2007.
This partnership was inspired by a recent study involving a Delphi panel recruited from fifty countries around the world.
The study identified twenty Grand Challenges in chronic non-communicable diseases and highlighted a set of priorities to address the burden of cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and certain cancers. This largely preventable, yet relatively ignored and under-resourced, group of conditions cause the greatest global share of death and disability, accounting for around 60 percent of all deaths worldwide. In low- and middle-income countries, the burden is especially significant and is projected to rapidly rise.
The Grand Challenges Global Partnership was designed to be a coordinating body for research-funding organizations in order to harmonize efforts among other relevant initiatives in hopes of expanding the partnership, forging collaborative research opportunities, and monitoring progress towards meeting the twenty Grand Challenges.
The development of the GACD has been facilitated by the Oxford Health Alliance supported by Dalberg Global Development Advisors.
PRIORITIES
The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases plans to avoid duplication by facilitating collaborative funding activities for innovative, original research directed at the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, especially where the need for robust evidence to inform policy is most urgent.
The members of the GACD have agreed on a number of priorities for early studies that will be followed by a more extensive program as the Alliance evolves. These priorities will be taken into account in collaboration with the prioritized research agenda developed by the WHO, the 2008-2013 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the
Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases.
The creation of the GACD brings to fruition a global commitment to urgently increase the resources and attention to chronic non-communicable diseases, which constitute the major burdens of illness and disability in almost all countries of the world.
With concerted action, many millions of premature deaths can be averted in the decade ahead. The formation of this alliance brings us closer to developing a serious, funded course of action.
