The 152nd session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board (EB) kicked off on Monday, 30 January. A draft update to Appendix 3 of the Global NCD Action Plan, also known as the ‘Best Buys’, is among the NCD-focused items to be discussed.

Ahead of the meeting, NCD Alliance published its Advocacy Briefing, which provides background on EB152 along with key advocacy messages on NCD-relevant items from the NCD civil society community on the provisional agenda.

Developed in consultation with various organisations, known as the Geneva NCD Advocates Group, the briefing “applaud(s) WHO and Member State’s efforts to advance global and country policy and action for the provision of the continuum of care for people living with NCDs, in line with Universal Health Coverage (UHC) principles and with a focus on Primary Health Care (PHC).”

It singles out for praise the draft update to Appendix 3, the concept known as the ‘Best Buys’, which contains a menu of policy options and cost-effective interventions for the prevention and control of NCDs – and recommendations for the upcoming United Nations High-Level Meeting on UHC in September 2023.

The Advocacy Briefing also calls on Member States to “recognise the importance of involving people living with NCDs in the development and planning of policies for well-being and across the continuum of care, in line with the Global Charter on Meaningful Involvement of People Living with NCDs”.

The Advocacy Briefing also discusses the following agenda items:

• Strengthening rehabilitation in health systems (agenda item EB 152/8)
• Diagnostics capacity (EB152/Pillar 1/Agenda Item 5)
• Well-being and health promotion (EB152/20)
• Social determinants of health (EB152/22)
• United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (EB152/24)
• Public health emergencies: preparedness and response (EB152/12)

Ahead of EB152, the NCD Alliance also published the briefing paper, Advocacy Priorities For the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC). It lays out a set of Advocacy Asks for the 2023 United Nations High-Level Meeting on UHC and for the progressive realisation of UHC in the lead up to 2030.

NCDA calls on Heads of State and Government to engage at the high-level meeting and take the lead in the progressive realisation of universal health coverage (UHC) by ensuring equity in their UHC health benefits packages across the three dimensions of financial, population, and service coverage, and to meet the needs of people living with NCDs.

A set of advocacy asks are detailed in the brief framed around four priority areas for UHC realisation, these are:

• ENGAGE people living with NCDs to keep UHC people-centred;
• ALIGN development and global health priorities to achieve UHC;
• INVEST in the prevention and control of NCDs through adequate, predictable, and sustained resources for UHC;
• ACCELERATE UHC implementation by including quality NCD prevention and care services in country UHC health benefit packages.

The WHO EB is comprised of 34 technical experts who are responsible for setting the agenda that will be discussed at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May. The WHA is WHO's decision-making body, responsible for WHO policies, programmes, and budgets, and for electing the Director-General.