Working together to support PEN-Plus implementation

The PEN-Plus Partnership consists of members of the NCDI Poverty Network who wish to engage in developing and promoting PEN-Plus strategies for integrated delivery of services at district hospitals for chronic care of severe NCDs that disproportionately affect children and young adults living in extreme poverty. These participants include representatives of ministries of health; nongovernmental organizations; academic institutions; disease-specific technical, policy, and advocacy institutions; philanthropic foundations; United Nations agencies and other multilateral and bilateral institutions; and organizations of people living with severe NCDs.

The PEN-Plus Partnership provides technical, policy, advocacy, and financing support for PEN-Plus implementation and scale-up, with backing from the Helmsley Charitable Trust, JDRF, UNICEF, and WHO/AFRO. The overall mission of the PEN-Plus Partnership is to increase the number of the world’s poorest children and young adults on treatment for severe chronic NCDs such as type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, and rheumatic and congenital heart disease by a factor of 10 by the year 2030.

To achieve this overarching goal, Partnership members work together toward four Network-wide objectives:

  1. Providing cross-cutting technical support through model training materials, guidelines, data-collection forms, and policies;

  2. Supporting country-level PEN-Plus Partnerships with implementation, policy, and research;

  3. Advocating and mobilizing funding for country-level PEN-Plus initiation and national scale-up and

  4. Facilitating data sharing and monitoring progress toward agreed-upon goals.

Currently, 54 leading organizations from the type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, and rheumatic and congenital heart disease communities, as well as organizations that deal with multiple severe NCDs, have joined the Partnership. Overall, we have more than 300 individuals participating in one or more of its working groups.

You can learn more about PEN-Plus Working Groups here.

The PEN-Plus Partnership Terms of Reference were ratified in July 2021.

You can access the application for membership in the NCDI Poverty Network and PEN-Plus Partnership here.