UNOSSC and WHO Mobilizing Global Support to Control Non-Communicable Diseases
Following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and against the challenge of preventing premature deaths caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs), the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) took part in a dialogue organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) Monday on how to strengthen international cooperation on the prevention and control of NCDs.
“The UN, through the UN Office for South-South Cooperation plays an important role in facilitating, strengthening and expanding South-South and triangular cooperation as an integrated and essential dimension of global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” said UNOSSC Director Jorge Chediek.
Chediek presented a summary of key conclusions arising from the Caucus of the UN System on delivering integrative responses for NCDs, held 27 October during the 5th Meeting of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs at the WHO in Geneva.
He noted that UN Member States are already using South-South cooperation to promote responses to NCDs. Specifically, he highlighted that in September UNOSSC supported a meeting in Uruguay organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which brought together 23 parties and triangular projects to strengthen FCTC implementation. The result was an agreement on eight South-South and triangular projects that begin in January 2016.
UNOSSC will include NCDs as one of the thematic issues at the next Global South-South Development Expo, where best practices and innovations from the South are showcased and shared among all development partners.
The World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty (WACAP), which is hosted by UNOSSC and based in Geneva, will include achieving prevention and control of NCDs in the urban context as one of three pillars of the next WACAP Global Forum.
Monday’s WHO dialogue – with speakers representing Member States, UN agencies, development banks, nongovernmental organizations, academia, private sector and philanthropic foundations, among other partners – is a part of a drive to increase resources to respond to the threat to sustainable development posed by NCDs, which represent 50 percent of the global disease burden. UNOSSC is working closely with the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of NCDs to strengthen international cooperation to address non-communicable diseases within the framework of North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation.
A Threat to Development
“Non-communicable diseases are a clear threat not only to human health, but also to development and economic growth. Claiming 63 percent of all deaths, these diseases are currently the world’s main killer,” said Attila Turos, Programme Specialist, Global Health and Healthcare at the World Economic Forum. Eighty percent of NCD deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries and half of those who die of chronic NCDs do so in the prime of their productive years, and thus, the disabilities imposed and the lives lost are also endangering economies, Turos added.
In anticipation of the WHO dialogue, the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the Agha Khan Development Network convened a private sector caucus to identify what the private sector can do to mobilize international cooperation on NCDs to help attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets.
While many ideas emerged, the private sector caucus chose to focus on four major areas, including developing platforms for multi-stakeholder dialogue at national levels; creating opportunities for the sharing of data and expertise between public, private and civil society sectors to identify high impact measures; mapping intervention areas for private sector collaboration; and the development of a framework for defining regulatory, co-regulatory and self-regulatory approaches.
The WHO Global NCD Action Plan for 2013-2020 lists 9 voluntary global targets for 2025, including that of a 25 percent relative reduction in premature mortality from NCDs by 2025. The global goals, or the SDGs, list six targets related to NCDs, including a 33 percent reduction in premature mortality from NCDs by 2030.
“If we focus on these 9 targets for 2025 and 6 targets for 2030 as our measurement of success, and the status quo as our baseline, we see there is much more the UN system can do through strengthened North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation for the NCDs,” said Chediek.
The UNOSSC Director also said there are lessons to learn from how the world addressed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF) provided – in the few years prior to the 2015 deadline – a systematic way for countries to develop their own action plans based on existing plans and processes to pursue their MDG priorities. An NCD acceleration framework, Chediek said, could borrow from the same experience.