The work of the United Nations system to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and the critical links between development and reducing the burden of cancer, heart and lung diseases, and diabetes, featured during the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York on 11 July 2017.
The Russian Federation and WHO hosted a side event titled, “Friends of UN Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable diseases: Supporting Member States to achieve the NCD-related targets for the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The event provided an overview of the work of the UN Task Force, showcasing how UN organizations are collaborating to help countries progress towards SDG 3.4 and other NCD-related SDG targets. The session also explored how to maximize development assistance to build capacity in developing countries to respond to NCDs.
Tatyana Yakovleva, Russian Deputy Minister of Health, opened the meeting, and stressed the need for adequate, predictable and sustained resources for the programmatic work of the Task Force, in line with the June 2017 ECOSOC resolution. Deputy Minister Yakovleva announced US$1million to support the joint WHO-UNDP programme, which will support governments to develop strong, multisectoral NCD responses.
She also invited Task Force supporters to consider organising a global conference on financing to mobilize additional funds to address NCDs. Such a meeting could take place before the 3rd UN General Assembly High-level meeting on NCDs in 2018. The Task Force, she added, has “become a model for the implementation of financially effective and result-orientated decisions in the political and practical levels”.
Hiroshi Minami, Japan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, highlighted the importance of integrating action on NCDs into existing programme areas, saying it offered an inroad to expanding the scope of health services to vulnerable people.
Mr Minami suggested additional actions to step up prevention and control of NCDs in countries. These included establishing high-level, multisectoral mechanisms within governments for NCDs, and investing in Information Communication Technology and mobile communications to scale up NCD action. He highlighted the Universal Health Coverage Forum, 2017, organized by Japan, WHO and the World Bank, which will be held in Tokyo from 12-13 December.
The Minister of Health for Samoa, Leao Talalelei Tuitama, said that while many countries had been making progress in the fight against NCDs, they still represented a “tsunami” in terms of their impact in many countries.
“Hypertension and morbid obesity rates are increasing dramatically in many of our island countries,” said Mr Tuitama, while alcohol abuse “remains a substantial problem which has also been the root problem for road traffic accidents, injuries and violent crimes.”
“We need to look more seriously at trade and industry to ensure that risk factors are regulated and controlled at the source,” he added. “Trade has many economic benefits, but at the expense of the health of many. With the problems that we are now experiencing with climate change and direct links to health, we must seek to work with trade and industry, import and export markets, internal markets, to ensure the products sold in our market meet a high standard of quality, determined by the health sector.”
The UN Task Force’s work was extremely important, he stressed.
Yusuf Ahmad, from the UK mission to the UN, reminded participants that the determinants for NCDs lie outside the health system. Sectors that can do most to prevent NCDs are, therefore, outside health – such as trade and industry, finance, education, transport and labour. “WHO and health ministries cannot tackle NCDs on their own,” he said, “a whole-of-government, whole-of-society, and whole-of-UN approach is required.”
Mme Hayet Zeggar, of France’s UN mission, emphasised it was “crucial to align all actors’ efforts for the same goal in a multisectoral and multi-stakeholder approach with governments, non-state actors, public sector and private sector too.” In addition, she stressed that “strengthening health systems, particularly by developing universal health coverage, health workforce, quality and affordability, are milestones which contribute to tackle NCDs, to better prevent and treat them. Ill people’s education, involvement and empowerment also help to better control NCDs.”
NCDs and health promotion are priorities of France’s Global Health Strategy 2017-2021, said Mme Hayet Zeggar. “France is pleased to join efforts and use the time between now and the 3rd UN High Level meeting on NCDs in 2018 to develop and implement programmes and partnerships that will help us to go forward,” she added.
Ambassador Courtenay Rattray, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jamaica, updated the roundtable on the 2017 CARICOM Heads of Government summit in Grenada. The CARICOM community, he noted, had recommitted itself to taking action on NCDs and that Heads of Government “supported the use of intersectoral approaches to address current health challenges”. Additional assistance from the UN Task Force should be considered to set up a sub-regional NCDs mechanism within the Caribbean region, Ambassador Rattray added.
Representatives from other countries took part in the side-event, including from Kyrgyzstan, where the recent UN Task Force investment case mission was described. Participants also heard from Italy, where the representative highlighted the importance of the environment and the synergies between SDG3 and SDG 11.
Interventions were also made by UN agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNODC and ITU). They described the Task Force’s work, with particular focus on global joint programmes and joint programming missions.
Priya Kanayson, from the NCD Alliance, described civil society’s role in the Task Force joint programming missions, highlighting the four A’s of Advocacy, Awareness raising, improving Access and Accountability. Including the NCD Alliance in Task Force missions had helped in moving towards stronger whole-of-government and society action on NCDs, she added.
Ms Kanayson reminded participants of the recently adopted ECOSOC resolution, and the call for resources to enhance the Task Force’s work and the need for financing for NCDs more broadly. She commended the Russian Federation for calling for a conference on financing for NCDs.
As part of the roundtable, Dr Nick Banatvala, Head of the Task Force Secretariat at WHO in Geneva, provided an overview on the Task Force’s current work. This included a description on joint programming missions, including those held recently to support governments make the case for investing in NCDs. Dr Banatvala also described a number of global joint programmes that UN agencies are taking forward and recently published technical guidance and advocacy material.
In summing up, Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO Assistant Director-General for NCDs and Mental Health, highlighted the importance of the UN in doing even more to harmonize and align its activities on NCDs. He also stressed the need for governments to work as one, and for ministries of health to be health-focused rather than disease-focused.
Dr Chestnov emphasized the links between SDG3 and the other SDGs and concluded by saying, “We want to guarantee to people they will not die before 70 at least. In Europe it is a much longer life. But if you go to Samoa or the Marshall islands, people die before 50. This is not acceptable. Like hunger, this is not acceptable.”