Access Accelerated Initiative
Tackling the growing burden of non-communicable diseases in low and middle-income countries and supporting progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
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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
NCDs are an urgent public health challenge. In 2015, approximately 75% of deaths due to NCDs occurred in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); almost half of these deaths occurred in people under age 70 and are considered premature. Many are preventable with proper treatment and care, but health systems still struggle to respond effectively to burgeoning rates of NCDs. Global development assistance for NCDs is low; in 2015, NCDs attracted only 1.3% of all development assistance for health ($475 million). The high cost of NCD-related healthcare and the reduced productivity of patients leads to a loss of household income, trapping people in a cycle of poverty and limiting development more generally. On a larger scale, it is estimated that NCDs will cost LMICs US$21 trillion over the next three decades, posing a significant threat to the achievement of the SDGs.
Description of partnership activities and how they address needs and challenges
Access Accelerated is a unique cross-industry collaboration that seeks to reduce barriers to 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) objectives and priorities. For the first time, leading private sector life sciences 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 companies encompassing the private sector life science sector via a technical partnership with the World Bank to advance NCD action and impact in LMICs.
Our technical partnership is guided by the following key principles:
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- 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
In 2024, Access Accelerated and the World Bank via a new technical partnership, in close collaboration with Results for Development (R4D), launched the Financing Accelerator Network for NCDs (FAN)—a transformative initiative to address one of the most pressing challenges in the global response to NCDs: insufficient health financing.
By mobilizing experts and leaders across the public, private, and development sectors, FAN is building a coalition of global and local organizations dedicated to supporting governments and local stakeholders build resilient healthcare financing systems, strengthen their NCD response, and drive on-the-ground impact.
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
From 2017 to 2023, the World Bank and Access Accelerated worked together to accelerate sustainable and scalable solutions to NCD prevention, treatment and care. Together, we aim to improve the quality of care delivered and ensure better access to appropriate treatments for people in low- and middle-income countries.
Across seven years, the partnership supported over 40 NCD projects across 36 LMICs, supported 15 government commitments through catalyzing new public investment in NCDs, achieving a total value of additional investments in NCD efforts contributed by Access Accelerated to over USD4 billion between 2017 and 2023.
In 2024, through a new technical partnership, Access Accelerated and the World Bank, in close cooperation with Results for Developed launched a new initiative, the Financing Accelerator Network for NCDs (FAN) to build a growing coalition of organizations dedicated to supporting LMICs to improve sustainable financing for NCDs.
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.
Geographic Reach
- Global Commitment
Disease Area
- Non-communicable diseases
Partner organizations
World Bank
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Additional resources
- accessaccelerated.org
- ncdfinancing.org
- Kenya's NCD Financing Director on the Need for Cross-Country Learning
- Novo Nordisk's Carissa Vados Highlights Crucial Role of Collaboration in NCD Care
- IFC's Farid Fezoua calls for Private Sector Collaboration to Bridge NCD Financing Gap
- Access Accelerated and World Bank: 2023 Measurement & Evaluation Report
- Key Lessons in Advancing Access to NCD care
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