Access Accelerated
Tackling the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in low and middle-income countries and supporting progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
SEE ALL PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS
Objectives
Access Accelerated was founded in 2017 as a collective of biopharmaceutical and lifesciences companies with the goal of responding to the threat posed by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). By taking coordinated collective action, we create synergies that lead to accelerated, meaningful progress and improved NCD outcomes over a longer period of time.
Our Vision
A world where all people have access to quality prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care for NCDs.
Our Mission
To drive scalable, sustainable progress on NCDs where and when it’s needed most. We combine partnership, innovation, and locally led solutions to accelerate progress, take strides toward global health goals, and ultimately achieve a healthier world.
Our Strategic Goals
- Impactfully inform local and global priority health policies
- Accelerate public and private investment in NCD prevention, treatment, and care
- Optimize engagement and set a gold standard for impact and rigor in public-private partnerships
Access Accelerated is a unique cross-industry collaboration that seeks to reduce barriers to quality prevention, treatment and care for NCDs in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through health systems strengthening (HSS) and alignment with Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and primary healthcare (PHC) objectives and priorities. For the first time, leading private sector biopharmaceutical companies have come together to bring their global reach and local expertise in partnership with countries, civil society, multilaterals and NGOs to support cross-sectoral dialogue and drive on-the-ground implementation and action plans to address NCDs.
The Access Accelerated-World Bank technical partnership
By bridging barriers, breaking down silos and reaching across sectors, Access Accelerated unites the efforts, expertise and experiences of global private sector companies via a technical partnership with the World Bank to advance sustainable NCD financing and impact in LMICs.
Our technical partnership is guided by the following key principles:
- Integrate and prioritize NCDs in countries’ efforts to achieve universal health coverage through quality, people-centered, and accessible primary healthcare systems.
- Scale up and catalyze investments in effective NCD financing models.
- Provide a demand-driven response to the needs of country governments.
- Invest in local and regional institutions to create a locally relevant, trusted resource.
- Bring a regional lens to the most critical NCD financing challenges and facilitate cross-country exchange of experience, good practices, and learnings.
Financing Accelerator Network for NCDs (FAN)
Sustainable financing is essential to an effective response to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). To bridge persistent funding gaps, Access Accelerated launched the Financing Accelerator Network for NCDs (FAN) in November 2024, as part of a new technical partnership with the World Bank and in close collaboration with Results for Development (R4D).
FAN fosters local and regional collaboration, providing country stakeholders with technical support, cross-country learning opportunities, and catalytic seed funding to strengthen NCD financing. The initiative began in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) hosting FAN’s first regional NCD Financing Accelerator. Expansion to Latin America in 2025 and the Asia-Pacific in 2026 will broaden FAN’s reach and impact, driving sustainable financing solutions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
This initiative builds on the past Access Accelerated-World Bank collaboration, which since 2017 has helped LMICs expand access to and catalyze funding for quality NCD prevention and care programs. FAN supports both the World Bank’s goal to deliver quality health services to 1.5 billion people by 2030 and Access Accelerated’s mission to drive scalable, sustainable progress on NCDs within the framework of universal health coverage.
Results and milestones
Between 2017 and 2023, Access Accelerated contributed over US$25 million to a Trust Fund, providing the World Bank flexible, catalytic funding to respond and tailor NCD solutions to country needs. This fund supported 44 World Bank activities at the global, regional, and national levels, spanning multiple LMICs.
The Access Accelerated-supported Trust Fund contributed to the World Bank’s broader commitment to NCDs, with the Bank investing over US$7 billion in NCD-related projects from 1980 to 2020. Notably, half of this funding—amounting to over US$3.5 billion—was directed toward initiatives launched between 2016 and 2020, highlighting a significant ramp-up by the World Bank in investment during the years of the partnership.
Access Accelerated funding enabled the World Bank to support countries in addressing key knowledge gaps and technical assistance priorities through initiatives such as:
- Flagship reports: Publication of global and regional reports to advance the NCD agenda, covering topics such as patient-facing digital tools for NCD management at the primary care level, country case studies on integrating NCD care into primary healthcare systems, and the development of an NCD Systems Assessment Tool to help countries prioritize investments.
- Technical assistance and policy advice: Development of strategies, investment cases, and assessments to strengthen national capacity in addressing NCDs, resulting in a broad range of analytical products.
- Pilot programs: Implementation of integrated NCD programs in Kenya, El Salvador, and Vietnam.
These efforts led to several key outcomes:
- Stronger institutional capacity in select LMICs to advocate for increased funding, assess and address gaps in the care cascade, and explore public-private partnerships
- Enhanced knowledge at country, regional, and global levels, and sharing of good practices
- Improved coverage and quality of NCD services resulting from the design and rollout of integrated models of care.
From 2017 to 2022, Access Accelerated also partnered with NGOs, City Cancer Challenge, NCD Alliance, PATH, and the World Heart Federation to support countries to improve access to NCD care:
City Cancer Challenge: Access Accelerated supported C/Can with critical seed funding to launch its C/Can network of cities. With the help of Access Accelerated and other strategic partners, C/Can has expanded from supporting four cities in 2017 to 13 in 2022, reaching over 59 million people, supporting more than 2,000 healthcare professionals and developed over 70 solutions to improve access to quality cancer care. Cities around the world, from Cali, Colombia to Nairobi, Kenya, have benefited from the initiative’s reach.
NCD Alliance: The NCD Alliance and Access Accelerated partnership provide examples of meaningfully involving people living with NCDs to facilitate change. Partner projects included supporting individuals with the skills they need to be effective advocates and spokespeople. Following training opportunities in Kenya, representatives of people living with NCDs had the opportunity to share their experiences with decision-makers. As a result, they gained a permanent seat in the Technical Working Group for the development of the new National Strategic Plan for Prevention and Control of NCDs 2020/21– 2025/26, which explicitly considers patients’ experiences and priorities.
PATH: Our joint efforts with PATH aimed to integrate NCD screening into primary health services, through community and patient-centered approaches, strengthen supply chains and to develop and scale digital technologies. Through the work with PATH, close to 215,000 people have been screened and referred as needed for elevated blood pressure and diabetes as part of the Communities for Healthy Vietnam program. In partnership with the respective Ministries of Health, a supply chain assessment for NCD medicines and commodities was completed in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Vietnam, and interventions to address barriers, especially for access at the community level, are being implemented.
World Heart Federation: Access Accelerated and the WHF worked in close partnership to respond to the heavy burden of CVDs in some of the most vulnerable communities in Africa and Latin America, including supporting the Act with a woman’s heart, a project by the Colombian Society of Cardiology and the Colombian Heart Foundation. After five months, of the 400 women who took part in the program, positive change was reported in at least two of the behaviors surveyed—consumption of fruits and vegetables and daily physical activity—with an increase in these activities among 95% of the participants. Over 50% of the women reduced their overall body weight as well as waist circumference, and lower blood pressure was recorded in at least 40% of them.
Media
Geographic Reach
- Global Commitment
Disease Area
- Non-communicable diseases
Partner organizations
World Bank
Coalition for Access to NCD Medicines and Products
Ono
Geographic Reach
Global Commitment
Disease Area
Non-communicable diseases
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Diabetes
- General Noncommunicable Disease Care (Health System)
- Mental and neurological disorders
- Respiratory Diseases
- Other NCDs
- Arthritis
- Blood disorders