NCD Alliance

A group of organizations has united in an alliance to fight non-communicable diseases in Nepal. According to The Himalayan Times, "the alliance will advocate a policy on NCDs with the government."

Read more via The Himalayan Times

"Arogya World and Nokia India today reported that they have enrolled one million people into mDiabetes, the groundbreaking diabetes prevention mHealth initiative in India."

Read the full release via Arogya World

The South African Minister of Health has signed into legislation a reduction of salt policy in certain foods including processed and imported foods.

This comes as a victory to one of the members of the NCD Alliance Network, the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa since it played a significant advocacy role in promoting the salt reduction platform. It was a member of the salt working group that advised the Department of Health.

Washington, D.C. – In partnership with The NCD Alliance and as a representative of the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) Roundtable, LIVESTRONG Foundation Director of Health Policy, Loyce Pace Bass, MPH, testified today on Capitol Hill in favor of sustained U.S. funding to combat the growing threat from non-communicable diseases.

Download the testimony here (via the NCD Roundtable website)

In a speech to attendees at the global thematic consultation in Gaborone, Botswana on health in the post-2015 development agenda, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake encouraged experts to be ambitious in setting goals and unified in committing to deliver against them. Lake cited the agreed "25 by 25" NCD goal as one example for consideration in the future development framework.

Click here for the full speech, via UNICEF.

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law to ban smoking in public places in Russia. The bill, which will begin to come into force starting 1 June 2013, will also enforce minimum price on cigarettes and restrictions on advertising.

Click here for the full article, via BBC News.

The NCD Alliance is proud to share the work of national NCD Alliances in their fight to address NCDs.

The Mathiwos Wondu-YeEthiopia Cancer Society has been working with the Working Group on NCDs, in Ethiopia to push its own government in reviewing and approving the Strategic Framework document on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). It is also included in the fourth Health Sector Development Program (HSPD) and Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) of the country, for 2011-2015 periods.

New Lancet series supports the inclusion of NCDs in the post-2015 development agenda,
aligning with NCD Alliance objectives

Helen Clark gave the keynote address at the Lancet series Launch of NCDs and Development.

In her address, she looks at the progress being on the health goals in the current MDGs and she explores how health broadly and NCDs could fit into the next development agenda. Finally, she comments on how development actors like UNDP can support multisectoral action to address the burden of NCDs.

Dr. Sania Nishtar represented the NCD Alliance at this years World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. She reflects on the global dimensions of the NCDs and goes into detail on how her own organisation, Heartfile, has raised awareness of the burden of NCDs in Pakistan.

Her reflections can be found here