Acknowledgements We thank the national NTD programmes, regional and district health staff and community health workers for their tireless determination and efforts towards the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases. Neglected tropical disease elimination is a relay race - let's not drop the baton How has the Ascend programme contributed to strengthening health systems for sustainable country-driven neglected tropical disease programming? Keywords: behaviour change; COVID response; elimination; health systems; neglected tropical diseases; supply chains; West and Central Africa EN behaviour change COVID response elimination health systems neglected tropical diseases supply chains West and Central Africa ii1 ii6 6 10/14/22 20220902 NES 220902 Background The timelines for eliminating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are relatively short in comparison to the millennia that these diseases have plagued communities, yet within our lifetime, several countries have successfully eliminated diseases through focused and concerted public health campaigns. [Extracted from the article]