Our governance

Board of Directors

DNDi is governed by a Board of Directors that approves project selection and sets policies governing intellectual property, financial control, and ethics.

The Board of Directors consists of six representatives nominated by each of DNDi’s founding partners and a patient advocate who represents the communities we serve. The Board is free to appoint up to eight other members in accordance with the additional skills, knowledge, and experience it requires.

A representative of the World Health Organization (as represented by UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) and the Chair of the DNDi Scientific Advisory Committee are permanent observers. The DNDi Executive Director is a permanent invitee.

In addition, our regional offices are governed by Boards of Directors.

The Board highly values diversity across DNDi’s workforce and Board membership, and is committed to encouraging inclusion in all its forms. When a new Board member is sought, all aspects of diversity, including gender, are very closely considered, alongside proposed members’ skills, knowledge, and experience.

Scientific Advisory Committee

The DNDi Scientific Advisory Committee provides independent and exclusively evidence-driven recommendations to the Board of Directors on matters related to research and development and choice of projects.

The Committee is composed of prominent scientists with drug discovery and development expertise, as well as medical and public health experts with disease-specific expertise or expertise with specific neglected populations
(e.g. children).

The Committee operates independently of the Board of Directors and the Global Executive Team. The Board of Directors approves the selection of Committee members.

DNDi Access Committee

The DNDi Access Committee provides advice to the DNDi leadership team on the quality and completeness of access to medicines plans to ensure that the treatments developed by DNDi and its partners reach the neglected populations that need them.

To ensure that all potential issues that can impact patients’ access to treatments are considered, the Committee is composed of experts with a wide variety of qualifications and expertise, including in the fields of anthropology, health economics, supply chain management, industrial affairs, public health. Created in 2021, the Committee is composed of fifteen members chosen based on their experience and expertise in these and other fields related to access to treatments.