Healthy Caribbean Coalition among those chosen to lead NCD action plan

As part of a new programme entitled, “Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action”, the NCD Alliance has competitively selected National Implementing Partners in the Caribbean region, Brazil and South Africa.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease – kill approximately 36 million per year, with 80% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. If current trends continue, this figure is projected to rise to 52 million deaths by 2030.

Governments agreed at the 2013 World Health Assembly to a global monitoring framework with a target to reduce overall preventable NCD mortality by 25% by 2025, and a WHO Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020. Reaching this target and the ambitions of the Plan will now require significant progress at the country level, through government leadership and robust policies, and a strong NCD civil society presence to hold governments accountable.

“Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action” is a programme designed to build the capacity of NCD civil society to monitor national progress on NCDs and to advocate for improved NCD policies and the strengthening of health systems.

The selected partners are: The Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) – a member of the World Heart Federation (WHF); Alliance for Control of Tobacco Use Brazil (ACT) – a member of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease; and the newly created South African NCD Alliance (SA NCDA), which brings together the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), Diabetes South Africa (DSA), the Heart and Stroke Association of South Africa, the Patient Health Alliance of Non-Governmental Organisations (PHANGO), members respectively of UICC, IDF and WHF.

Professor Sir Trevor Hassell, President of the HCC was extremely pleased with the announcement.

“The HCC has a long history with the NCD Alliance and Medtronic and we commend them for the vision in bringing this project to realisation. We are proud to have been selected as NCDA National Implementing Partners for this valuable initiative and we congratulate our counterparts in Brazil and South Africa in their selection,” he stated.

“Through this grant, the HCC is committed to continuing our work aimed at strengthening the capacity of Caribbean civil society organisations to effectively advocate for improved NCD prevention policies and programmes and hold their governments accountable to regional and international NCD commitments. We look forward to working closely with the NCDA and our regional and International partners over the next two years as we collectively work towards building a more empowered and active CSO-led NCD Advocacy movement in the Caribbean,” he added. (PR/RSM)