Supporting Member States to achieve the NCD-related targets for the Sustainable Development Goals
On Monday 23 September 2019, the Friends of the Task Force met during the High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) at the 74th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The side-event was hosted by the Russian Federation and WHO and co-sponsored by the Republic of Belarus; Japan; India; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway; Philippines; Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka; Sweden; Tonga; Turkey; Socialist Republic of Viet Nam; and members of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases.
Member States, UN agencies and non-State actors, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector participated.
The main objectives of the meeting were to:
- To review the current work of the Task Force and agree how the UN system can better support countries to scale up their responses to the NCD-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets.
- To highlight how Member States and development partners are responding to the NCD epidemic plural noun is better.
- To review how the Task Force, Member States and development partners are responding to recent United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolutions regarding the work of the Task Force.
- To launch: (i) a set of NCD UN agency briefs; (ii) a set of case studies providing examples of activities among members of the Task Force; and (iii) a WHO primer on heath taxes.
- To announce the winners of the 2019 Task Force Awards.
Dr Poonam Singh, Regional Director, WHO South East Asia Regional Office, described her experience on NCDs in the WHO South East Asia region, highlighting NCDs as a symptom of deeper crises of governance at local, national, regional and global levels. She highlighted the importance of ensuring that health systems are fit for the purpose, that preventive health and financial are prioritized, that there is multisectoral action, and that innovation is encouraged, for example through mobile technology and wearables. The Regional Director reminded everyone that NCDs are a high priority for WHO as can be seen through its support for NCD-related programmes, including the work of the Task Force.
The Honourable Phillipe Tavares, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minster of Defence, Cabo Verde explained that his country became the first country in Africa to have engaged strongly in tackling NCDs. He also highlighted that Cabo Verde is determined to pursue their effort towards health promotion of the cities and to brings hope to the country and the whole continent.
The Honourable Katsunobu KatoMinister of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, described health challenges in Japan, for example the increase in rates of diabetes due to changes in diet and lack of physical activity. The Minister emphasised that action was possible: Japan had reduced it cardiovascular disease mortality rate by one half in 2017 compared with 1970. He stressed that multisectoral action is the key to combating NCDs and the importance of combatting NCDs as part of UHC.
FAO’s Deputy Director-General for Programmes, Daniel Gustafson stated, “Nutritious foods that are mentioned under most voluntary guidelines are not always available, not always affordable for many people, and they are simply often beyond the reach of the poor.” He emphasized that a key objective is to lower the cost and improve the availability of more nutritious foods, especially fruits and vegetables and make healthy diets more accessible, more affordable, safe and more attractive.
The representative of the Ministry of Health Viet Nam, explained that the fast-increasing burden of NCDs is a challenge for Viet Nam and that the country is determined to improve its efforts to achieve UHC by 2030.
The Honourable Francisco T. Duque, Secretary of Health, Philippines described the efforts being made to tackle the NCD epidemic through implementing the WHO best-buy interventions, for example for reducing tobacco use and unhealthy diet. He concluded by stating that, “The Philippines is in solidarity with the global community towards our shared goal of addressing the NCD epidemic. We commit to sustaining our current efforts and advancing new ones. Together we can do more and together we can beat NCDs.”
Colin McCiff, Deputy Director, Office of Global Affairs of the US Department of Health and Human Services explained that the approach of United States in tackling NCDs, both domestically and internationally, is to look for opportunities to engage a whole-of-society approach, which includes the private sector and the civil society. He highlighted the importance of seeing the Task Force continuing to support countries deliver multistakeholder and multisectoral action on NCDs in order to achieve UHC.
Irene Khan, Director General, International Development Law Organization (IDLO) pointed out that legislative action plays an extremely important role in furthering policies and strategies to address NCDs. She continued, “That is why we continue to be actively involved in this area and believe that SDG 16 on justice and peaceful inclusive societies, and SDG 3 on universal coverage of health care for all people are closely linked.”
Olivia Wigzell, Director-General, National Board of Health and Welfare of Sweden explained that the challenge in the country is existing health inequalities, “Most risk factors are more pronounced among people with low education leading to stubborn health inequalities. Sweden’s overall objective is to close avoidable health gaps within a generation. She added that, “Sweden is investing in the primary care sector by transferring resources from hospitals to primary care centres and to care delivered at home.”
Manoj Jhalani, Additional Secretary and Mission Director (National Health Mission), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India emphasised the critical role that healthy diet and physical activity has in preventing NCDs. He described a range of actions being undertaken in India to respond to NCDs throughout the life course.
Aksel Jakobsen, Deputy Minister of Development, Norway said that, “To combat NCDs and reach the most vulnerable and marginalised in low income countries, UHC is essential and will be a priority.” He highlighted that primary prevention is key in the fight against NCDs and that the Government of Norway is commitment to combatting climate change and air pollution to improve health and wellbeing.
Dr Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director, UNDP HIV, Health & Development Group said that, “We see this Task Force as a major opportunity for the UN system to more broadly support countries, to address environment, climate and health outcomes together.” She added that UNDP and WHO have supported national NCD investment cases for a number of countries and are close to finishing 15 investment cases on tobacco control, as well as working to broaden investment cases to address air pollution and mental health.
Dr Stineke Oenema, Secretariat Coordinator, United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) pointed out that globally, 1 in 3 people suffer from a form of malnutrition and that every country bears a combined burden of malnutrition and NCDs. She stated, “We need to move to a multisectoral approach as the nutrition and NCD burden is simply too great for the health sector alone. The UNSCN is committed to support the 2030 agenda by maximising coherence and fostering coordinated action and enhance dialog and knowledge sharing.”
Dr Svetlana Akselrod, Director, Partnership on NCDs, WHO assured those at the meeting of WHO’s commitment to lead the Task Force and strengthen action across the UN system to support counties in line with the Task Force’s 2019-2021 strategy.
Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, Deputy Director-General, WHO, highlighted the importance of tax on health harming products as an effective tool to combat NCDs, as well as other effective evidence-based fiscal, legislative and regulatory interventions. Dr Jakab also highlighted the importance of the multi donor trust fund for NCDs and for mental health.
The meeting also saw three publications launched. Dr Agnes Soucat, Director, Health Systems Governance and Financing (WHO), described the 10 UN agency briefs on NCDs and a set of NCD and mental health case studies from across the UN system
The 2019 Task Force awards were announced. The awards were in the following categories: (i) ministries of health (including agencies under ministries of health); (ii) ministries being health (including agencies under other ministries); (iii) non-state actors; and (iv) UN system agencies and country teams. The awards recognise outstanding work on the NCD-related SDGs.