2026 NNN Conference

“People, Systems, & Resilience: Adapting NTD Responses Through Holistic Approaches”

The theme for the 2026 NNN Conference builds on the momentum of recent years by placing people, systems, and long-term resilience at the centre of the NTD elimination agenda. As countries confront climate pressures, shifting epidemiology, financing constraints, and an evolving landscape of wider development priorities, NTD responses must adapt — not through isolated solutions, but through holistic, community-led, and system-strengthening approaches.

This year’s theme reflects a growing recognition that elimination is not only a technical challenge, but also a question of leadership, equity, integration, and sustainability. By aligning innovation with country ownership, mental health with quality of care, and cross-sector collaboration with development pathways, the conference will explore how NTD programmes can remain resilient and impactful in complex and changing contexts.

The content of the 2026 NNN Annual Conference will be organised around four interconnected sub-themes:

• Community Leadership Through Rights-Based, Country-Owned Action - Elevating the leadership of people affected by NTDs and young practitioners as decision-makers, this sub-theme focuses on human rights, equity, gender, disability, livelihoods, and sustainable financing. Sessions will explore how rights-based and community-led approaches, combined with country ownership and domestic resource mobilisation, can strengthen accountability, resilience, and long-term elimination gains.
• Mental Health, Stigma, and People-Centred Care Across Generations - Recognising the profound social and psychological impact of NTDs, this sub-theme highlights mental health integration, stigma reduction, and dignity in care. It will examine intergenerational impacts of exclusion and disability, and explore how community-informed, climate-aware primary health systems can deliver quality, person-centred care that improves long-term wellbeing.
• Innovation, Data, and Community-Adapted Technologies - This sub-theme focuses on how technological advances can be used to improve digital health and diagnostics, that strengthen prevention, surveillance, and treatment. Emphasis will be placed on technologies co-designed with communities and implementers, ethical data use, and communities of practice that support innovation at scale within national health systems.
• Integration, Cross-Sectoral Action, and Development Pathways - Elimination requires collaboration beyond the health sector. This sub-theme explores integrated approaches linking NTDs with climate adaptation, WASH, nutrition, food security, education, livelihoods, and One Health. Sessions will address how cross-sector partnerships can be mutually beneficial, and how they can be operationalised effectively, balancing ambition with practical implementation lessons.

Together, these four sub-themes create a comprehensive framework for advancing adaptive, resilient, and people-centred NTD responses — ensuring that progress toward elimination is sustained, inclusive, and grounded in strong national systems.