On 11-12 February the newly formed South Africa NCD Alliance convened a stakeholder meeting in Johannesburg entitled “A Call to Action: Stopping the Epidemic of NCDs”. The meeting was part of the NCD Alliance program Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action, and brought together over 90 participants from government, civil society, healthcare providers, industry and academia.

The event marked the launch of the South Africa NCD Alliance (SA NCD Alliance), and provided the opportunity to review the current state of NCD prevention and control in South Africa, identify gaps for action and build a network of action. Speakers included NCD Alliance Executive Director Katie Dain, the Chief Director of the NCD Unit at the National Ministry of health, and Medtronic Philanthropy Senior Director Paurvi Bhatt.

This meeting included focused workshops on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each sector in relation to NCD prevention and control. There was widespread interest in multisectoral collaboration and commitments were made by each of the sectors.

The meeting participants welcomed the newly formed SA NCD Alliance in playing an advocacy role as well as convening multisectoral action and sharing and disseminating NCD resources, and also offered excellent feedback and input regarding structuring and other areas of action.

As next steps, a multisectoral working group was set up to identify focus areas for the SA NCD Alliance. In addition, the SA NCD Alliance will be developing a Civil Society Status Report to track national progress on NCDs (using the NCD Alliance benchmarking tool), and will host a second National meeting to focus on health systems strengthening for NCDs.

It is clear that significant momentum has been achieved in South Africa and there is commitment and enthusiasm to scale up NCD prevention and control efforts. The NCD Alliance will support the SA NCD Alliance with continued technical assistance, grant support through "Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action" and will be looking at showcasing globally South African best practices in NCDs. 

To download the presentations from the South Africa Stakeholder meeting, click here.

To download the report of the South Africa Stakeholder meeting, click here.

The SA NCD Alliance with the Kwa Zulu Natal Provincial Department of Health will be holding the first provincial NCDs Indaba (IsiZulu word for meeting) on 24 June 2014. It is expected that the Provinical Minister of Health will give the opening address. The purpose of the Indaba is to bring together stakeholders from different sectors to discuss national and provincial NCDs plans and to find a joint way forward to stop the epidemic of NCDs according to agreed priorities. In addition to the discussions and working groups, there will be an exhibition to showcase NCDs related NGOs,  health professional groups and industry. The Indaba will be held in the Nkosi Albert Luthuli Memorial Hospital, Durban.

For information and registration details please see here.

For additional information on the South Africa NCD Alliance please click here.