WHO

As the leading UN Agency on NCD prevention and control, the World Health Organization is a key partner in advancing the NCD response at global, regional and national levels.

The World Health Organization convenes several high level meetings during the year where civil society is able to participate and observe. The NCD Alliance engages in all relevant meetings, including the World Health Assembly and Regional Committee Meetings.

The WHO’s main governing bodies and their relevance for the NCD response:

The Executive Board

The Executive Board is composed of 34 Member States elected for three-year terms and meets twice a year. The main functions of the Executive Board are to review decisions and policies to be adopted at the World Health Assembly.
Read recent NCD Alliance submissions, statements and briefings for Executive Board meetings here

The World Health Assembly (WHA)

The World Health Assembly is the main decision-making body of the WHO comprising health ministers from 194 member states, and meets once a year in May. Progress against the global NCD targets and Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020 is reviewed by the WHA. 
Read recent NCD Alliance submissions, statements and briefings for World Health Assemblies here

WHO Regional Committees

The six WHO Regional offices hold Regional Committee meetings once every year to address the health needs of the respective region and to discuss implementation of decisions made at the World Health Assembly.
The six regions are: AFRO, EURO, PAHO, WPRO, EMRO, SEARO.
Read recent NCD Alliance submissions, statements and briefings for Regional Committee Meetings here

WHO & NCDs

Global Coordinating Mechanism for NCDs (GCM/NCD)

The GCM/NCD is a Member State led mechanism run by a small Secretariat within WHO with the mandate: “to facilitate and enhance coordination of activities, multi-stakeholder engagement and action across sectors at the local, national, regional and global levels, in order to contribute to the implementation of the WHO Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020.” Guided by, and in line with, the six objectives of the WHO Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020, the functions of the WHO GCM/NCD are:
  • advocating and raising awareness;
  • disseminating knowledge and information;
  • encouraging innovation and identifying barriers;
  • advancing multisectoral action;
  • advocating for mobilization of resources.
The GCM/NCD is led by Member States. Other participants include UN entities, other relevant intergovernmental organizations, and selected NGOs and private sector.
 
The GCM/NCD has a lifespan of 2014-2021 (aligned with the WHO Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020), with a preliminary evaluation in 2017, and a final evaluation to assess its continuing relevance in 2021.
 

Working Groups

The GCM/NCD facilitates the work of Expert Working Groups to produce recommendations on urgent topics relevant to the prevention and control of NCDs. In 2015 two working groups produced guidance on “Financing for NCDs” and “Engagement of the private sector in the NCD response.
 
In March 2016, two Working Groups will take up their work on “Integration of NCDs with other thematic areas” and “Alignment of international collaboration with national NCD responses”. Their recommendations are expected to be submitted to the WHO Director-General in December 2016.
 
Read more about the Working Groups here (link is external).

GCM/NCD Dialogues

As part of its efforts to advocate for and raise awareness of the urgency of implementing the Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020, the WHO GCM/NCD conducts multistakeholder dialogues at global and regional levels.