The Global Diabetes Alliance (GDA) is a group of research scientists from six continents and over 20 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, South Africa, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and the United States that comprise more than two-thirds of the world's population. Our work is focused on understanding, preventing, and treating diabetes.

We assembled in Seattle on October 21–23, 2007, to form an international diabetes alliance that is now developing powerful and unprecedented research projects—with direct links from research to improved practice—and is seeking the funding required for their implementation.

Our objective is to forge the strongest possible response to the growing "tsunami" of diabetes that is taking the lives of millions each year and threatens the well-being of hundreds of millions more in terms of disability and economic costs of increased healthcare and reduced productivity, creating the risks of increased social and economic instability.