About the WHO Executive Board
The 148th annual WHO Executive Board (WHO EB) meeting shall be held from 18-26 January, when the members will agree upon the agenda for the World Health Assembly and the resolutions to be considered by the Assembly.
This year, the WHO EB agenda shall be based upon four pillars:
- Pillar 1: One billion more people benefitting from universal health coverage;
- Pillar 2: One billion more people better protected from health emergencies;
- Pillar 3: One billion more people enjoying better health and well-being;
- Pillar 4: More effective and efficient WHO providing better support to countries.
Within these pillars, the NCD Alliance has identified key items that are relevant for the global NCD agenda, which you can read in our Advocacy Briefing - EB 148.
You can also access the following WHO EB resources:
- A full agenda, available documents, schedule for late documents is now available.
- Schedule of ongoing negotiations between missions (resolutions and decisions).
- Preliminary Daily Timetable.
*Please note that this page will be updated as information becomes available.
Relevant agenda items and statements
NCD Alliance Advocacy Briefing - EB 148
This briefing note provides background and key advocacy messages on NCD Alliance’s key priorities for the 148th session of the WHO Executive Board (EB148) in January 2021. The EB will take place in a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It deals with key NCD-relevant items in the order of the provisional agenda of EB148. NCD Alliance has drawn attention to and provided recommendations for the following:
Pillar 1: One billion more people benefiting from Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
- Agenda item 6: Political declaration of the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases;
- Agenda item 7: Expanding access to effective treatments for cancer and rare and orphan diseases, including medicines, vaccines, medical devices, diagnostics, assistive products, cell- and gene-based therapies and other health technologies; and improving the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines and other health products;
- Agenda item 9: Antimicrobial resistance;
- Agenda item 13: Integrated people-centred eye care, including preventable vision impairment and blindness.
Pillar 2: One billion more people better protected from health emergencies
- Agenda item 14: Public health emergencies: preparedness and response;
- Agenda item 14.1: COVID-19 response;
- Agenda item 14.2: WHO's work in health emergencies;
- Agenda item 14.3: Mental health [and neurology] preparedness and response for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pillar 3: One billion more people enjoying better health and wellbeing
- Agenda item 16: Social determinants of health.
Pillar 4: More effective and efficient WHO providing better support to countries
- Agenda item 19.2: WHO reform: involvement of non-State actors in WHO’s governing bodies;
- Agenda item 19.3: Global strategies and plans of action that are scheduled to expire within 1 year The global health sector strategies on, respectively, HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, for the period 2016–2021.
EB148: Joint Statement
This a joint statement from WCRF International, UICC, World Obesity Federation, supported by NCDA for the 148th session of the WHO Executive Board on Agenda Item 6: Political Decleration of the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
Relevant NCD Alliance resources
This briefing note provides background and key advocacy messages from NCD Alliance on how COVID-19 is impacting people living with NCDs (PLWNCDs).
This policy research report outlines global progress towards integration of NCDs into UHC benefit packages to date.
The policy brief coincides with the long-awaited adoption of the World Health Assembly resolution for ‘Integrated people-centred eye care, including preventable blindness and impaired vision’. It echoes key messages from the resolution, which acknowledges the existence of cost-effective eye interventions covering promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation at primary health care (PHC) level, and the need for their integration into health systems as part of countries’ pathways towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
This Discussion Paper will act as a starting point from which the NCD Alliance will explore how to support advocacy calling for a Person-Centred, Inclusive NCD Agenda.
Signalling Virtue, Promoting Harm: Unhealthy commodity industries and COVID-19, authored by the NCD Alliance and the SPECTRUM Consortium, is a preliminary exposé and analysis of tactics and strategies adopted by the unhealthy commodity industries during the COVID-19 pandemic to date.
