Table 1. Summary of facilitators and barriers to effective NTD integration, as reported by study participants.

Stakeholder	Integration Facilitators	Integration Barriers
All stakeholders	Efficiencies in time and human resources Increased uptake in services through integrated programming Ability to share elimination lessons learned across disease initiatives Leadership structures that promote communication between disease focal persons	Vague and varying “integration” terminology External timelines or funder pressures that don’t allow for a lengthy integration process Some strong or well-funded programs do not see integration as a “win-win” Political encampments of stakeholders who work on school-based versus community-based NTD programming
Multilateral partners	Communication between disease-specific working groups	Loss of important disease-specific data resulting from integrating and simplifying data collection forms
Funders	Disease specific outcomes that can be quantitatively improved following integration	Difficulty in measuring progress of integrated investments Concern for maintained effectiveness of stronger programs if integrating with weaker programs
Implementation partners	Launching newly integrated programs as opposed to supporting existing disease specific programs	Difficulty in integrating efforts with other partners Absence of some integrated tools and methods, limiting ability to perform some technical integrated activities (ex. mapping)
MOH-national	Need to maintain relevancy after disease-specific elimination goals are met Efficiency with minimal financial resources Strong NTD Steering Committees with decision making capacity Detailed NTD Master Plans with specific actionable integrated activities	Human resource challenges/ fear of unemployment or loss of recognition Vertical funding which prohibits integrated activities Vertical supply chains that can delay treatment Fear of reducing effectiveness of a successful program following integration
MOH-district	Human resource efficiencies Desire to promote streamlined community-based activities Integrated leadership at the national level	Vertical direction and supervision at the national level Fear of losing funding/resources following integration
Volunteer rural health workers	Efficiencies in income generating time expenditure Coordinated trainings that promote unified messaging Perceived increase in community participation	Incentives that discourage concentrated NTD labor inputs relative to other disease programs Confusion in NTD knowledge base
Community members	Efficiencies in income generating time expenditure Presence and acceptability of integrated community programs such as EPI Demand for MDA services that don’t consume excess time Unified NTD messages during community sensitization	Confusion during community sensitization activities Fear amongst some of taking large amounts of medication simultaneously