TDR’s work is made possible by strong and inclusive governance. The Joint Coordinating Board oversees TDR’s work and is made up of governments and institutions of disease-affected countries, UN co-sponsors, development partners and other global stakeholders. This is complemented by the managerial and financial oversight of the Standing Committee. Scientific oversight is provided by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee.
The implementation of our new strategy relies heavily on how we partner with stakeholders. Our core work is supported by programme funding from our long-term contributors, and specific project funding is sought to build off this to expand the scope or deepen the impact. We will provide opportunities for a range of actors to work together.
As a Special Programme based at WHO headquarters, we will continue to work closely with many WHO departments, the six WHO regional offices and other research entities in Geneva. This strong connection helps us to coordinate our work and connect directly with WHO actions that improve health on the ground.
Relationships with our other co-sponsors at UNICEF, UNDP and the World Bank are also critical to our success, particularly in optimising our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, we will continue to work with UNICEF on common approaches to children affected by poverty-related diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis; with UNDP, we will work to increase access to new products by engaging various stakeholders in countries and strengthening national capacities; and the World Bank’s agenda of increased health system resilience provides an opportunity for us to work together on implementation issues specific to country needs.
In this strategy, our work will be tackling more complex issues that require different relationships with a variety of organizations. Areas such as One Health call for engagement with organizations such as the World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Environment Programme. Health systems resilience will be built through relationships with a range of research management associations, as well as partnerships for Universal Health Coverage and primary healthcare and the ESSENCE on Health Research initiative.
We will also continue to work hand in hand with product development partnerships such as the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, and global organizations like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, to provide them with the evidence they need to implement the roll-out of new products and tools. We will work to increase our impact by putting out joint grant calls such as with the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, GLOpidR, the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund and others.
We will also work with regional bodies such as Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the West African Health Organization, Eastern and Southern Africa Health Community, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation of Brazil, African Academy of Sciences, regional research and innovation management associations in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, as well as the newly established Science for Africa Foundation.
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How to cite this document: World Health Organization & UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. (2023). TDR strategy 2024–2029: building local research solutions to improve global health. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/371092. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO