A community health worker dispensing medication to a child in Central Togo during a September 2022 mass drug administration campaign.
We are excited to announce that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has extended the Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) | West Program until July 2026. As part of this extension, the program’s ceiling was increased by $120 million, for a total of more than $320 million over eight years. The additional funding will directly support the 11 West African governments involved in the Act | West program in achieving their NTD goals.
This extension will enable continued support to countries to deliver treatments to communities, assess and evaluate progress, and to further strengthen health systems to sustain NTD program services. Since the beginning of the program, Act | West has supported countries to distribute 297.1 million treatments and have trained more than 670,100 community drug distributors and teachers who disperse drugs. In addition, with USAID support through Act | West, 9 countries have developed NTD sustainability plans towards ensuring the ongoing delivery of NTD services and 6 countries have created cross-sector coordination mechanisms to collaboratively implement those plans.
