The Seventh Meeting of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases was hosted by WHO between 25-27 October 2016 in Geneva.
The meeting was co-chaired by the World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and was attended by 25 UN agencies, programmes and funds, development banks and regional intergovernmental organizations.
The meeting agreed on a road map for responding to ECOSOC resolution E/RES/2016/5 by reflecting the new NCD-related targets included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in their national development plans and policies enabling them to accelerate progress on achieving these targets. The meeting agreed that the Task Force will:
- develop a proposal for global joint programme on harmful use of alcohol, violence and infectious diseases;
- establish a thematic working group on mental health;
- set up an ad-hoc group to define the format, scope and purpose of a potential thematic working group on road safety, with particular focus on its role in supporting national government;
- develop a set of actions in the area of NCDs and environment;
- include the relationship between drugs beyond the harmful use of alcohol and NCDs and the future work of the Task Force; and
- include legal and human rights perspectives into future joint programming missions.
Other decisions reached at the meeting included:
- Updating the 2014 guidance on mainstreaming NCDs into UNDAFs, taking into account the new UNDAF guidance which will be issued by UN Development Group shortly, including standard terms of reference for Results Groups on NCDs;
- That individual agencies consider adopting or adapting the tobacco model policy on preventing tobacco industry interference acting in accordance with their respective mandates and guided by their own conflict of interest policies, although a very small number of Task Force members abstained from this particular decision;
- Joint implementation of a new Task Force communications action plan; and
- A joint approach to follow up the 2012 and 2014 joint letters from the WHO Director General and to UNDP Administrator, in order to encourage greater action on NCDs at the country level.
The Task Force also received a progress reports on the most recent joint programming missions and NCD investment case missions as well as reports from Task Force global joint programmes and thematic groups.
The Task Force held an informal breakfast to discuss technical assistance and capacity building provided to government officials at the intersection of trade and NCDs.