Description

This briefing note provides background and key advocacy messages on the noncommunicable disease (NCD) relevant items on the EB152 provisional agenda (EB152/1 annotated) from the NCD civil society community.

The NCD community applaud 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), through 152nd Session of the WHO Executive Board. In particular, we applaud the draft update to Appendix 3 – 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 2023.

This work is vital as global progress is not on track to achieve global targets on NCDs and their risk factors by 2030, impacting the associated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 targets, including the attainment of UHC. It is important to note that service coverage for people living with NCDs is not improving at an adequate pace, nor equally ensured for everyone, and that out-of-pocket spending on NCD services has been increasing, further accentuating health inequities globally and increasing the global population’s vulnerability to future health emergencies.

This demonstrates the need to invest in, accelerate, and align systems for health, in particular by including quality NCD prevention and care services in country UHC health benefit packages. For this to be achieved, the involvement of people living with NCDs in the planning, development, and planning of policies for well-being and across the continuum of care at global and national levels is vital, as they have the right to highest attainable health level, and they can bring the lived-experience expertise that no one else can.