2021: Progress through partnerships

An important learning from the ongoing pandemic has been how much further we can go by joining forces. For the Novo Nordisk Haemophilia Foundation (NNHF) and its partners, the unprecedented circumstances of the past two years have driven us to seek new ways of reaching people on our journey to improving the care and treatment of bleeding disorders around the world.

Let’s look back upon a year of progress through partnerships.

One way we strengthen and expand our impact is by forging strategic partnerships with other renowned organisations active in low- and middle-income countries. In September, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) to collaborate on its Regional Training Centre programme by providing laboratory and physiotherapy equipment to build capacity for diagnosis and care. In December, we signed an agreement with the Fondation Pierre Fabre (FPF) to collaborate on programmes focusing on haemophilia and sickle cell disease in Burkina Faso, where both our foundations are working to increase access to care.



Our Kenya-Tanzania project, co-funded with the Novo Nordisk Foundation, made great progress in advancing care for haemophilia and sickle cell disease, with half of the planned centres already providing care. In December, the team brought together Ministry of Health representatives along with patient organisations and medical advisory committee members for four days of strategic meetings to set a roadmap for the way forward, as the project enters its second year.

Our partners around the world continued to impact care together in diverse ways: training 200 healthcare workers and completing work on six hospital centres in Kenya and Tanzania; raising awareness to increase haemophilia diagnosis by more than 40% across Madagascar; empowering a multidisciplinary care team to train 350 people with haemophilia and 100 family members in Mexico.

Since 2010, we recognise the outstanding achievements of our partners through two annual awards. The Project of the Year 2021 was awarded to the South African Haemophilia Foundation (SAFH) and its Medical and Advisory Council (MASAC) for successfully creating a national patient registry while engaging a new generation of young leaders to secure the future of haemophilia care in South Africa. The recipient of our Community Award 2021 was the exceptional Dr Magda Rakha, President of the Egyptian Society of Haemophilia, in recognition of her long-term commitment to people living with haemophilia in Egypt.

We are pleased to have been able to support many projects in 2021. The NNHF Council approved 16 additional projects in the past year, expanding our geographical reach to four new countries on the African continent. This is in line with the objectives set in our 2021-25 strategy: strengthening our network, fostering advocacy and expanding funding to increase support for the haemophilia and allied bleeding disorders community globally.

All of us at the NNHF remain strongly committed to helping people with bleeding disorders no matter where they live, and that commitment is unwavering even in uncertain times. We would like to take this occasion to thank all of the partners around the world whose work it is our privilege to support. We look forward to continuing our journey together in 2022.