World Partner Project
A fundamental issue is how the diabetes pandemic will affect developing countries’ ability to grow and develop. The purpose of the World Partner Project (WPP) is to establish a foundation on which developing countries can build their own healthcare strategies and ultimately improve access to proper care. WPP always works with local partners, usually health ministries and/or patient organisations. It is funded by a grant from Novo Nordisk.
Launched in 2001, WPP and its partners have driven projects in eight focus countries (Bangladesh, Malaysia, Tanzania, Zambia, El Salvador, Costa Rica, China and India), organising clinics, providing distance learning for healthcare professionals, educating pople with diabetes and raising diabetes awareness. The focus for all projects is sustainability: they must be affordable and practical enough for long-term operation.
Performance 2006
Activities in 2006 included three workshops in Sub-Saharan Africa with the purpose of training health officials in how to develop national strategies for diabetes. The workshops served as preparation for the launch in December 2006 of the African Declaration on Diabetes at the International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) congress in Cape Town, South Africa.
A counterpart to the proposed UN resolution on diabetes, the African Declaration was developed jointly by IDF, WPP and WHO AFRO. It is a specific effort to get the governments of Sub-Saharan Africa to commit to fighting diabetes on a national scale.
As of 2006, it is estimated that WPP projects have resulted in the training of 50,000 healthcare professionals, while 103,000 people with diabetes have been directly trained or treated.
Going forward, WPP will continue to facilitate established projects in the eight focus countries until it is satisfied that these projects can be self-sustaining. Funding has been reserved for projects in three new focus areas: Nigeria, Mexico and an as yet unnamed Asian nation.
A status report on WPP, called ‘Changing diabetes care in developing countries’, can be downloaded here.
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