Speaking about the Malawi context, Pacharo said, "Malawi has seen the consequences of NTDs at the community level. If someone is affected by an NTD and then goes on to experience stigma, loses opportunities to work or go to school, or cannot access the services they need, then that is not simply a medical issue.
"Bringing these issues together helps us see the person as a whole and identify where services can be better integrated and more responsive to people’s rights and needs.
"So the first step is to bring the relevant ministries, UN agencies, civil society, communities and partners around the same table and look at where synergies already exist. Then we can identify some practical areas where the resolution can be translated into policy, planning and investment.
"Different countries will obviously come at it from different perspectives. For some, the emphasis is on the right to health and reaching underserved populations. For others, it is the connection with WASH, poverty, climate or the resilience of health systems. But I think there is a growing understanding that these issues cannot be dealt with in isolation.
"And I think Malawi can also demonstrate what implementation of a human-rights approach to NTDs looks like in practice. If we can turn the resolution into something that changes policy, financing and ultimately people's experience of NTDs, then that becomes a model that other countries can learn from.
"The important thing now is to move from support for the resolution to implementation. For me, that means countries looking at their own national context and asking: what does this actually mean for our policies, our budgets, our programmes and the people we are trying to reach?
“And I think that is where the next phase of the work needs to focus. The resolution gives us the framework; now we need countries to make it real.”
