The eighth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG) took place on 21–22 April 2015 at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
This year’s agenda featured progress in achieving Roadmap targets and increased domestic investments targets, as developed in the third WHO report on neglected tropical diseases.
Other issues included:
- criteria for disease elimination and eradication;
- criteria for certification and verification of disease elimination;
- challenges in preparing guidelines;
- reports from various working groups;
- the expanding role of the WHO Pesticides Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES);
- dengue control; and
- capacity strengthening
The STAG is the principal advisory group to WHO for the control of NTDs and reports directly to the Director-General of WHO. Its mandate is to advise WHO on overall global policies and strategies, ranging from monitoring of implementation to delivery and linkages with other health interventions. Its remit is to facilitate and monitor the coverage of control interventions and to provide WHO with high-quality, well considered advice and recommendations on matters described in its terms of reference.