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Who We Are

The International Alliance for Diabetes Action (IADA) brings together more than 150 organizations working to ensure that everyone living with diabetes in humanitarian settings has access to high-quality, person-centered diabetes care.

The IADA network spans humanitarian organizations, intergovernmental and UN agencies, academic institutions, people living with diabetes, civil society, philanthropic organizations, and the private sector. The IADA secretariat serves as the backbone of the alliance, supporting shared learning and coordinating collective action.

Together, we achieve more than any one organization could alone. Drawing on the skills, wisdom, and capacities of our network, we develop and advance ambitious, practical initiatives that influence policies, build understanding, and improve lives. Through this work, we seek to ensure that diabetes care is part of the response to today’s crises and preparedness for those to come.

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background

Worldwide, more than half a billion people are living with diabetes, four in five of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. At the end of 2025, nearly 118 million people had been forcibly displaced from their homes by conflict, violence and persecution, and an average of around 170 million people are affected by disasters linked to natural hazards each year. Many of them are living with diabetes.

People living with diabetes face serious risks when humanitarian crises disrupt access to care. Health systems may be overstretched, care fragmented, and supplies of essential medicines and equipment interrupted. For people with type 1 diabetes, losing access to insulin and appropriate care is an immediate, life-threatening emergency. People with all types of diabetes face a higher risk of infection, complications and death.

Despite the urgency, diabetes care is too often overlooked in humanitarian responses. IADA exists to change that.

‍Note: IADA is a US tax-exempt non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code. IADA is not a funding mechanism and does not pool or disburse funds on behalf of its network.

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Hospital Ward in Uganda

LEADERSHIP

Forced migration is at record high levels with 79.5 million people displaced from their homes in 2019. 85% of those affected are being hosted in low-income or middle-income countries and 77% are living in protracted refugee situations with the average duration of displacement now being over 20 years. In addition, there are >100 million conflict-affected non-displaced people and 175 million people affected by natural disasters annually. Despite projections of increases in both diabetes and humanitarian crises, the provision of diabetes care in humanitarian settings remains scarce and poorly coordinated. Thus, diabetes is a crisis within a crisis that represents an urgent need for advocacy, approaches to ensure delivery of essential care and medications, and surveillance systems to monitor and drive progress.

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PARTNERS

This was highlighted at a symposium at Harvard University in April 2019, which led to the Boston Declaration which was signed by 64 signatories from over 40 international organizations and published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in August 2019. It set four major targets for the group to work towards over the next years:

Unified and strengthened advocacy
Universal access to insulin and other essential medicines and diagnostics for glycemic and blood pressure control in humanitarian crises
Establishment of a unified set of clinical and operational guidelines for diabetes in humanitarian crises
Improved and coordinated data and surveillance

In order to achieve these goals successfully, sustained collaborative commitment of a diverse network of partners is required. The International Alliance for Diabetes Action (IADA) was therefore established with the goal of ensuring availability and affordability of diabetes treatments and diagnostics and radically improving care for every person with diabetes affected by humanitarian crises.

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