Building regional bridges to strengthen and promote civil society NCD coalitions in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa
13th June 2019
A health worker speaks to clients waiting for services at a clinic in Rwanda © 2017 Riccardo Gangale | USAID
The NCD Alliance’s Mapping of NCD Civil Society Organisations in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa was presented yesterday in Dakar, Senegal, during a regional capacity development workshop organised on 12 and 13 June by the NCD Alliance with the support of Sanofi. The workshop gathered 18 civil society advocates from 9 Francophone sub-Saharan African countries to support civil society organisations (CSOs) and alliances in the region, aiming to develop a shared understanding of what noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are and what can be done collectively to accelerate efforts for the prevention and control of NCDs in the region.
WHO estimates that deaths from NCDs are likely to increase globally by 17% over the next 10 years, and the African region will experience a 27% increase, that is 28 million additional deaths from these conditions which are projected to exceed deaths due to communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional diseases combined by 2030.
The NCD Alliance workshop convened 18 civil society advocates from Francophone sub-Saharan African, including representatives from existing NCD alliances in Burundi, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Rwanda, as well as other CSOs in Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal to promote greater coordination and mobilisation of civil society working on NCDs in the Francophone sub-Saharan Africa region.
The workshop saw the launch of the NCD Alliance’s Mapping of Civil Society Organisations in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa, produced with the support of Sanofi, in order to identify challenges, gaps, solutions and opportunities for CSOs to advance the NCD agenda in the region.
"We need urgent action on NCDs in the African region to avoid a tsunami of deaths. Governments have globally committed to decrease premature mortality due to these diseases by 30% by the year 2030. There is civil society experience and interest in the region to grow collective action on NCD prevention and control. NCDA looks forward to continuing to support civil society coalition building and advocacy work in this area.” said NCDA’s Director of Capacity Development, Dr Cristina Parsons Perez, in her closing remarks.
"We at Sanofi are happy to collaborate with NCDA in order to support civil society organisations. This is complementary to the several programmes we run in the region in order to improve access to prevention, treatment and care for people living with NCD" - Catherine Levy, head of NCD programmes