Young Professionals' Chronic Disease Network
Information on the purpose of your organization
The Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN) is a global multidisciplinary community dedicated to policy analysis, advocacy and social change concerning non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which include
cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and mental illnesses.
Our vision is: A generation of change: a world where all people have an equal opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives.
Our mission is: To mobilize a global community of young leaders to take action against the social drivers of NCDs.
Active in over 150 countries and more than 4,000 members strong, the YP-CDN is a global community of emerging leaders from multiple disciplines, who raise their voices to effect change in the fight against NCDs. From founding the first bone marrow registry in Nigeria to successfully lobbying for the addition of otherwise unaffordable NCD treatments on the WHO essential medicines list, the members of YP-CDN are making concrete differences in the lives of others worldwide through targeted action against NCDs.
Our purpose is to collaborate with young leaders, stimulate research, as well as promote policy changes at the international, national, and local levels for the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases.
The young professionals who are members/volunteer of the Organization include students and emerging experts in their fields. They include public health professionals, doctors, anthropologists, philosophers, lawyers, etc.
Past Activities: The Organization established a website to share its goals, publish member/volunteer biographies on NCDs and encouraged more young professionals to become involved.
The organization established a "Third Thursday" or"3T" program where local groups of young professionals from various countries meet on the third Thursday of each month to share their work and plan initiatives to impact NCDs.
Current Activities: The Organization was incorporated in Virginia (United States) on January 29,2014,and is now a registered public charity (501c3). The organization has a full time Executive Director and a volunteer Executive team. In addition, the Organization provides a learning and information-sharing platform on global NCD prevention and treatment.
We hosted a training for over 50 young professionals, including delegates from Kenya, India, Nigeria and Rwanda with the American Cancer Society and Harvard University in March 2015. This training focused on community organization and advocacy & action campaigns that seek to reduce premature death and disability from NCDs among disadvantaged populations worldwide.
In that spirit, we organize trainings and workshops on these issues, sponsor and co-sponsor annual global meetings, develop innovative policy briefs and technical documents, and present and advocate in global fora with decision-makers (See some of our presentations at the UN General Assembly, WHO, and TED). We demonstrate our values when necessary in the form of rallies to nudge action. We develop local 'networks' ? called 3T ? across six continents to locally advocate for social change.
Information on your programmes and activities in areas relevant to the subject of the Summit and in which country or counties they are carried out.
Our strategic plan focuses on leadership acceleration and development for the next generation. We have focused on access to essential medicines and NCDs, which are critical components of the sustainable development goals post-2015.
In particular, we work closely with the WHO, national governments and young professionals in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and India to help promote national treatment policies that are equitable, fair and evidence-based.
Over the past year, we have sponsored a training/leadership development session with the American Cancer Society and Harvard University for over 50 young professionals and with global experts on access to affordable medicines.
In addition, we have built local next generation chapters to support next generation of global leadership for NCD prevention and control. Our 3T (?Third Thursdays?) project lies at the very heart of our organization. It brings young and passionate people together who have leadership potential and diverse skills and backgrounds to contribute to the global NCD movement. 3T is what makes YP-CDN unique?it is our grassroots force that spans borders and disciplines. Through 3T we not only bring a strong global voice to our high-level policy efforts, but we also have the capacity to drive policy and social change where it really matters: locally.
Two successful initiatives at the local level include diabetes and rheumatic heart disease awareness raising campaigns where volunteers have visited primary and secondary schools across Nairobi, Kenya to teach children and youth about these conditions and how they can be prevented. Our network has also allowed our local members to launch the first bone marrow registry in Nigeria and a continuing video narrative project that seeks to raise awareness and understanding of NCDs globally as well as the fight for sustainable development across the board.
Information on activities at the national or international levels
At the national level: Specifically, we conduct our activities in Nairobi, Lagos and Delhi.Our activities also include analysis of national policies, which would have wide impact in each case. Our activities in Kenya, Nigeria, India and Rwanda include analyzing the National Essential Medicines Formularies, which determine medicine subsidies towards affordable medicines. We have focused on expanding access to high priced cancer treatments, particularly for people living with leukemia and breast cancer.
We plan to host an East African regional meeting where individuals can learn and share research, experiences and future activities across fields of health care and public health.
At the international level, we have attended the UN GA High Level Meeting on NCDs in 2011 as civil society delegates, and we were asked to serve on a plenary panel as part of the UN GA High Level Meeting Review on NCDs in July 2014 to highlight the social injustice of NCDs (invitation attached).
We have petitioned the World Health Organization to add high-price, patented life-saving drugs for cancer on the WHO Essential Medicines List in attempt to make the treatments more affordable for all. In fact, our organization has helped add nearly 2% of all the medicines on the WHO Essential Medicines List and 1 in 7 for all drugs for NCDs. Nearly 7 out of every 10 countries have adopted our recommendations in the case of the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug statins. Our members have visibility: Our work has been featured in The Lancet, Bulletin of WHO, TEDMED, The Huffington Post blog, Scientific American, JAMA and the Institute of Medicine.
Please see this web-link for our previous work at the UN General Assembly: http://www.un.org/press/en/2014/ga11532.doc.htm
Organization have an annual report? (YES/NO) (should contain financial statements and a list of financial sources and contributions, including governmental contributions)?
YES -
LettertoIRSwithForm1023ApplicationandAttachments00281656xC614B1.pdf
List of members of the governing body of your organization, and their countries of nationality
Sandeep P. Kishore, President, MD/PhD. United States
Jordan Jarvis M.Sc Executive Director, United States
Seun Adebiyi JD, Secretary, United States and Nigeria
Badri Narayanan PhD, Treasurer, United States and India
Erin Little, Vice President for Human Resources, United States
Ariella Rojhani, Vice President for Policy and Strategy, United States
Kavitha Kolappa, MD/MPH United States i
Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, JD, Canada
Anand Kishore MD, Vice President, United States and India
Copy of the constitution and/or by-laws of the organization (WORD or PDF only), or a weblink to it
FinalExecutedBylawsComplete00274162xC614B.pdf
