The Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Danish International Development Assistance agency (DANIDA) and the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) today signed a memorandum of understanding to work together toward preventing diabetes and its long-term complications in developing countries. The agreement will be implemented through programmes that will strengthen national health systems in target countries, especially in the primary care sector.

"The World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg emphasises innovative Partnerships at all relevant levels as a crucial means for achieving sustainable development. This agreement between Danida and WDF aims to create synergy and ensure additional highly needed resources for building a better healthcare infrastructure in developing countries. As such it is a good example of how public-private partnerships have obvious potentials as a supplement to traditional governmental aid programmes", says co-signatory, the Honourable Per Stig Moeller, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Access to proper healthcare is a high priority issue at the Summit, as it is in most governmental aid programmes. Health is the prerequisite for wealth. According to the Danish government's Partnership 2000 policy: "We are committed to helping these countries take active steps toward reduction of poverty. As such, it is absolutely critical to tackle major health problems and substantially increase the capacity of the health systems."

WHO statistics predict exponential growth of diabetes in developing countries, and assessments of its impact on spiralling poverty and suffering over the next twenty years point to an urgent need to act now.

Professor Sir George Alberti, Chairman of the World Diabetes Foundation, describes some of the planned programmes. "Our overall goal is to contribute to prevention and limitation of the damaging effects of diabetes through assistance in building the healthcare capacity of the collaborating countries.  We are in agreement with our DANIDA partners that national ownership of the programmes by the collaborating countries must be preserved. Therefore, we do not have, at this stage, any firm plans about the programmes themselves. We do know, however, that any efforts aimed at education, for early diagnosis and prevention of later complications, bear real fruit. Education of the general population must also be matched with substantial skill development of health professionals."

The two parties will aim to establish two projects by 2003 in the following countries: India, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania or Bhutan.  The activities to be explored may include documentation and research on diabetes related problems, research and analyses about nutrition and healthy lifestyle, public and professional education, distribution and procurement of essential drugs and monitoring of results. In addition to national governments, the parties will also collaborate with national and international NGO’s, national and international research institutions, national health services, international organisations and industry.

The WDF is responsible for identification and selection of projects. It will negotiate directly with potential partners to establish the scope and implementation plan for projects. It will also fund directly the projects that its Board approves. DANIDA, for its part, will use its considerable knowledge of local conditions to identify possible countries and programmes. It will also recommend consultants who could assist in the preparation and implementation of pilot programmes to be funded by WDF.  DANIDA will also help accelerate the sharing of results from pilot projects toward larger scale implementation.

Leif Fenger Jensen, WDF, +45 4442 5770
Media: Alette Heinrich Meyer, WDF, +45 2829 4345

Approximately 150 million people in the world have diabetes.  According to World Health Organisation (WHO), in a decade that number may increase to 250 million, with 70% of all new cases occurring in the developing countries.

Less than half of the people with diabetes are diagnosed.  Without timely diagnosis and adequate treatment diabetes will expand exponentially, hitting primarily people who are still productive in the economy.  Thus, diabetes in developing countries has a double negative impact on their future: the cost of treating diabetes and the complications arising from its neglect are high per se; and the disease itself is capable of debilitating people who would otherwise be contributors rather than user of scarce economic resources.

In response to this trend, and to help meet the needs of disadvantaged people prone to diabetes, the international pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk established the World Diabetes Foundation in 2001.  A fully independent charitable trust, the WDF aims to improve diabetes prevention through

• Assistance to education and public awareness
• Capacity building
• Distribution and procurement of essential drugs

Professor Sir George Alberti, who is also President of the International Diabetes Federation, is the Chairman of the WDF Board. The Board is responsible for managing the distribution of grants and supervising the implementation of projects based on a current endowment of DKK 500 million over the next ten years.