The MoU was signed on Friday, 21 February, 2020, by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization, and Katie Dain, CEO of NCD Alliance (NCDA), at the World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland.

The ceremony was witnessed by members of WHO’s Leadership team, a representative of NCDA board, Dr Cary Adams, NCDA’s Director of Advocacy, Nina Renshaw and a representative of the youth and people living with NCDs, Cajsa Lindberg.

This MoU is the first formal legal, collaborative agreement between WHO and NCDA, and documents over ten years of progressive collaboration between the two entities, including the facilitation of 3 United Nations High-Level Meetings in 2011, 2014 and 2018.

In his remarks, Dr Tedros commended Katie Dain and NCDA for its role as the convener of the global civil society movement on NCDs. He also reaffirmed the commitment of his administration to the systematic and meaningful engagement of civil societies and people living with NCDs in WHO’s governance and policymaking process.

In her response, Ms Dain described the meaningful engagement of people living with NCDs as an important aspect of the global NCD movement and reiterated NCD Alliance’s commitment to the achievement of the SDGs, especially target 3.4 on NCDs and WHO’s triple billion targets.