NCD Alliance

On 16-17 February, the Uganda NCD Alliance (UNCDA) hosted a two day planning meeting of the East Africa NCD Alliance Initiative.

On 11-12 February the newly formed South Africa NCD Alliance convened a stakeholder meeting in Johannesburg entitled “A Call to Action: Stopping the Epidemic of NCDs”. The meeting was part of the NCD Alliance program Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action, and brought together over 90 participants from government, civil society, healthcare providers, industry and academia.

A joint report of Nutrition and Dementia has been released by Alzheimer's Disease International and Compass Group. The report details specific nutrients linked to dementia prevention and nutritional care for dementia and also highlights links between nutrition and other NCDs.

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Dr. Vera Luiza Da Costa e Silva will become head of the secretariat for the WHO Framework Convention On Tobacco Control in June. From Brazil and currently Coordinator of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Health, National School of Public Health, Silva will work at WHO HQ in Geneva.

South Africa's Department of Health is currently considering whether to support enforcement of a "sugar tax" in line with aims to reduce sugar consumption across the country.

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In a meeting to mark World Cancer Day, Ethiopia's First Lady Her Excellency Mrs. Roman Tesfaye brought together major stakeholders working to prevent and control cancer at the Prime Minister’s Office on February 3, 2014. Among the over seventy invited guests were the Minister of Health, the Minister of Science and Technology, the Minister of Women, Youth and Sports, parlamentarians, and representatives of UNFPA, UNAIDS, USAID, Pathfinder, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and NGOs such as the Mathiwos Wondu-YeEthiopia Cancer Society and the Ethiopian NCD Consortium.

The World Health Organization and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance today published the Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life. The Atlas is the first document to identify the need for and availability of palliative care globally.

From the WHO-AFRO.

On the 21st of January, the Ethiopian legislation ratified the FCTC thanks to the advocacy of national partners.

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Experts urge the UK Department for International Development (DfID) to produce an overall strategy for disability, and prioritise the issue in the future development framework and aid allocation.

Click here to read more via The Guardian.

Congratulations to Healthy Caribbean Coalition President, Professor Sir Trevor Hassell, on being awarded Knighthood in Barbados! The NCD Alliance is pleased to work together with HCC and Professor Sir Hassell as we advance the fight against NCDs in the Caribbean region.

Read more about this honor here.