Giving Compass' Take:

• Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors profiles the END Fund, which aims to fight neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) through a collaborative and systems-oriented approach.

• Addressing NTDs is a high impact area, where even a small amount of funding can go a long way. How can this fund show other investors the pathway forward?

• Here's how we can connect neglected tropical diseases and nutrition.

Through a collaboration between philanthropy, business, and stakeholders in government, medicine, schools, and local communities, the END Fund has shown the world that controlling and eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is possible with a deeply systems-oriented approach.

In 2006, Alan McCormick, partner at Dubai-based private investment  firm Legatum, was reading a Financial Times article that framed funding to NTDs as an investment opportunity that had the potential to catalyze major change on a large scale. This article, coupled with a visit to Alan Fenwick, professor of tropical parasitology at Imperial College of London, laid the foundation for what would be successful country-wide integrated NTD control programs in Burundi and Rwanda, spearheaded by philanthropist, government donors and pharmaceutical companies. Risk was embraced — the philanthropists quickly mobilized the entirety of the program’s initial $7.7 million funding.

Building on the momentum from the pilot programs, the END Fund was created in 2012 by the principals at Legatum and their philanthropic advisors, Geneva Global. The organization was modeled after an investment fund and provides high-impact opportunities for public-private partnership.

Read the full article about the END Fund and neglected tropical diseases at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.