The NCD Alliance launched an Accountability Toolkit today at the Global NCDA Forum, in support of action on one of the five major gaps to progress on tackling NCDs identified by NCDA: accountability.

Entitled ‘Pushing for Progress on NCDs: A Toolkit for Civil Society-Led Accountability to Bridge the Gap between Commitments, Targets and Action’, the toolkit provides background on the concept of accountability and resources to support NCD civil society’s monitoring initiatives.

The 2020 Toolkit updates a previous version from 2013, which included a benchmarking tool that was used by several national and regional alliances to produce civil society status reports in the lead up the 2014 UN High-Level Review. Via stream 3 on accountability, the Global NCDA Forum 2020, taking place on 9-11 February in Sharjah, UAE, will serve to galvanise interest in accountability and reporting, including via a practical workshop to encourage more alliances to use the new toolkit.

Accountability, described as a cyclical process of monitoring, review and action to assess progress, strengths and weaknesses and identify problems, is a cornerstone of NCD Alliance’s work. Independent accountability exercises, undertaken by civil society organisations, are important to hold governments to account for their commitments taken on the global stage, and ensure that they translate into real, national and local action.

The results of independent evaluations are useful tools – an external assessment, index or ranking can often spur action by governments shown to be lagging behind or not measuring up to their peers’ progress.

NCDA believes that accountability actions are essential to bridge the gap between the global commitments to NCD prevention and control that governments have undertaken over the last decade, and national action to reduce the prevalence and burden of NCDs in every region to reach the targets for 2030.