Neeraj Mistry, MD, MPH, joined the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases in July 2010 as Managing Director. With a focus on advocacy and resource mobilization, he creates partnerships and bridges crosscutting development themes to grow and strengthen the movement of controlling and eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
A public health physician, Neeraj was a founding member and former Vice President of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), and brings extensive experience in global health policy and programming, having worked in developing and developed countries, in the public and private sectors, across clinical practice, health policy and social development.
He serves on the Board of African Services Committee and the International Advisory Board of the END Fund, the world’s first private philanthropic initiative to combat the seven most common NTDs. Following the completion of his medical training at the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa, Neeraj also worked at the National Health Service (NHS) in London and with Merck & Co. Inc. dealing with public affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two daughters.
1). Please tell me about your current position?
I am Managing Director of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (Global Network), an advocacy initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute dedicated to raising the awareness, political will and funds required to advance the neglected tropical disease (NTD) cause. My role is to institutionalize NTDs in global and local structures that tackle health, social and economic advancement of communities worldwide. I frequently meet with politicians, business leaders, and health and development experts to help make linkages between NTDs and ongoing efforts to achieve sustainable progress.
Our organization works on behalf of the 1.5 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day. While other health and development issues affect people we can identify with – those in affluent, urban-dwelling professional classes – NTDs affect forgotten communities who have no champions and cannot speak for themselves. Economically, the greatest benefit achieved is when we address those that are worst off first.
2). What are your proudest achievements?
My proudest achievements are the inclusion of NTDs in the United Nations’ High-level panel report on the post-2015 development agenda; policy integration of NTDs across Latin America, Africa and Asia; the launch of END7, an international advocacy and fundraising campaign run by the Global Network to raise awareness of NTDs in the general public; and stimulating high levels of interest in wealthy governments to contribute investments. Most important, however, is the mischievous smile I saw on a five year-old child after he had been dewormed.
3). What inspires you?
People, including their complex and unique ways, personalities, characters and talents, inspire me. This is the reason why I’m involved in NTDs. By tackling NTDs, we give people the chance to express their personalities and the talents they possess. Ultimately, as human beings, we want some form of self-determination, and our work to control and eliminate NTDs at the Global Network is the minimum we can do to enable that self-determination.
4). What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
An obstacle to overcome is institutional rigidity and the misbelief that progress can’t happen when we are open to flexibility, creativity and innovation. Unfortunately, many institutions that reside over policies and programs for the general public have little appetite for creative strategies that will yield greater benefits. However, I have overcome this challenge through my passion in my beliefs, and ultimately, by keeping my focus on the people that we serve.
5). Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
I grew up in South Africa, which like many countries has complex paradoxes, yet through that complexity emerged a clear focus personified through Nelson Mandela. When I met him, I thanked him for his inspiring fight for human rights, which led to my work championing issues of social justice. As a South African Indian, I am also inspired by the human rights efforts of Mahatma Gandhi. Ultimately, the fight against NTDs is a fight for human rights for these neglected communities in order to bring them to a level of full social and political participation.
6). What is the best aspect about your current role?
The best part about my job at the Global Network is the people I work with ranging from people in the organizations, institutions, and governments we partner with to my daily interactions with my team and most importantly, people in the communities that we serve. We’re all united by a common goal of helping people lead fulfilled lives through the control and elimination of NTDs by 2020.
7). And the worst?
The process of navigating bureaucracies can be a long-delayed process that has tried my patience because it means that sometimes people who need immediate treatments don’t receive them fast enough. Fortunately, positive momentum on NTDs is taking place in endemic and donor countries, regional bodies and international organizations that is helping to overcome this.
8). What are your long-term goals?
I believe in the principles of universal access to health care and other essential services and want to be part of the process to achieve that goal.
9). If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
I would work to develop and implement policies and programs that promote tolerance and acceptability in order to strengthen our empathic connection to each other and move from individualism to harmonious co-existence. This is a universal philosophy whose essence is captured in Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as the South African philosophy of “ubuntu,” which simply states, “I am because you are.”
10). If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
If I were marooned on an island with no hope of rescue, I would choose to live my remaining days with pure and utter artistic enrichment and fulfillment – Leonardo da Vinci—who, as a Renaissance person embodied the curiosity of a scientist, the flare of an artist, the drive of an engineer and the heart of a philosopher.
