World Health Assembly a key milestone ahead of High-Level Meeting on NCDs
08th May 2018
© WHO
With the 3rd UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs scheduled for 27 Sept 2018, the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA71, 21-26 May) will be an important milestone. Its agenda will include items, discussions and side events relating to NCDs and preparations for the HLM on NCDs.
To help mark the World Health Organization’s 70th anniversary in 2018, WHO is staging a major health promotion event in Geneva on the eve of WHA71. Titled Walk the Talk: The Health for All Challenge, the free walk/run event will be open to people of all ages and abilities.
NCD Alliance and partners will have a booth for Walk the Talk, at the Place de Nations, and NCDA is convening a team to promote its HLM campaign ENOUGH. Our theme: 'Together we are stronger, together we can beat NCDs'.
NCDA Civil Society Advocacy Briefing will take place on Sunday 20 May, from 15:00 to 16:30. Participation is limited to 2 representatives per organisation. Click here to register.
On Monday 21 May, NCDA' side event "ENOUGH. Making 2018 the year for action an impact on NCDs" will take place at Intercontinental Hotel from 18:00 to 19:45. This event will seek to “set the bar high” for the 2018 UN HLM on NCDs and beyond. It will raise awareness of the opportunity and priority issues for the third UN HLM for NCDs; provide a platform to explore challenges, bottlenecks, and bold solutions for transforming and scaling up the NCD response; and will look ahead beyond 2018 to secure progress towards the SDGs.
It will include two high-level panels: a conversation with a selection of the WHO Independent High-Level Commission on NCDs, and a multi-stakeholder panel to break down the why and how of making 2018 count for NCDs. Click here to register.
Civil society, and partners, will also be hosting a number of side events. These include a roundtable on cervical cancer and a workshop on positioning circulatory health in Universal Health Coverage. (See all NCD-related events).
NCD-focused items on the WHA agenda include:
- A71/12: Addressing the global shortage of, and access to, medicines and vaccines
- A71/14: Preparation for the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs
- A71/15: Preparation for a high-level meeting of the General Assembly on ending tuberculosis
- A71/18: Physical activity for health (link is external) | Draft 3 Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (April 2018)
- A71/19: Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030): sexual and reproductive health, interpersonal violence, and early childhood development
- A71/20: mHealth: Use of appropriate digital technologies for public health
- A71/23: Maternal, infant and young child nutrition - Safeguarding against possible conflicts of interest in nutrition programmes
The WHA is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board. Its main functions are to determine the policies of the WHO, appoint the Director-General, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programme budget.