Effective management of diabetes, a chronic metabolic non-communicative disease, is a worldwide public health priority. According to 2019 OECD health figures, over 425 million people are currently living with the condition across the globe, with the majority in low and middle-income countries. As Part of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Agreement on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), member countries have agreed to work towards halting the rise in diabetes and obesity by 2025.

People with diabetes are more likely to suffer from life-changing cardiovascular conditions such as sight loss, heart attacks, strokes, amputation and kidney failure. Management of the disease requires a high level of self-care, making health advice and education key to effective management of the condition.

GODAN and its Kenya-based Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA) have signed an MoU with the Institute of Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition (IPTN). The agreement sees the two organisations pledging to work together to promote open data in evidence-based nutritional health treatment; specifically for people living with, or at risk of, chronic health conditions.

^{Image: Diabetes is responsible for many life-altering cardiovascular conditions.}

Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) advocates for the use of open data to combat food security and malnutrition, building a framework for global efforts to make agriculture and nutrition relevant data available, accessible, and usable, for unrestricted use, worldwide. The initiative encourages co-operation among existing agriculture and nutrition open data activities that bring stakeholders together to solve long-standing global problems.

The Institute of Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition is a Canada-based organisation that promotes therapeutic nutrition as a means to treating chronic, non-communicable disease. Using an evidence-based approach, the IPTN supports advances in patient care and educational programmes.

Central to this joint project is the plan to create Type-2 Diabetes Remission Centres dedicated to the education of local medical staff on the effective treatment of diabetes. GODAN’s P4CDA has committed to working closely with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, using its expertise to build South-South cooperation around the challenge of non-communicable disease prevention and alleviation, to assist in the establishment of a Kenya-based blueprint Centre. A clinical lead, trained and supported by the IPTN, will be appointed to lead an interdisciplinary team in training local medical staff and clinicians. This proof of concept will lead to the creation of two such centres.