The WHO Regional Committees are an important discussion forum for the Member States on the global NCD Framework. It gives Member States the opportunity to discuss and comment on both the global NCD targets and the NCD plan.  The NCD Alliance has coordinated representation at these meetings to ensure a strong civil society voice is present on any discussions on the NCD Framework, and developed a Statement to be delivered at each Regional Meeting.  

The highlights of each Regional Committee meeting can be found below and the summary is available here.

SEARO Regional Meeting Jakarta, Indonesia

A resolution was adopted urging Member States:

• To ensure participation in all steps of the non communicable diseases follow-up processes
• To collectively advocate for ... global targets ... to cover all major risks, namely, tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol, as well as targets relating to health outcomes and health systems response

EURO Regional Meeting Valletta, Malta

A resolution was adopted at the EURO Regional Meeting urging Member States:

•  to “have additional development and implementation of relevant national policies to control NCDs and the capacity of health systems to address them, including health promotion, disease prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.”
• To stress the importance of addressing health inequity in the Global Monitoring Framework

 PAHO/AMRO Regional Committee Meeting, Washington D.C.

A regional strategy on NCDs was adopted at the PAHO Regional Meeting highlighting the need to:

• place greater emphasis on raising the level of attention paid to NCDs in both the development and economic agendas of Member States and the international community
• encourage a multisectoral “all-of-society” approach that includes government, the private sector, academia, and civil society at the regional, subregional, and national levels alike
• reduce avoidable mortality, morbidity, risk factors, and costs associated with NCDs—thus promoting well-being and improving productivity and development prospects in the Region

For other PAHO Initiatives please visit our news page for more information

WPRO Regional Committee Meeting, Hanoi Vietnam

At the Regional Meeting, the progress so far was reviewed on NCDs and they called for a multi-sectoral action and development of targets and indicators for NCD prevention and control. During the session, discussions on targets and indicators included the following:

• curbing smoking
• cutting alcohol and salt intake
• lowering blood pressure
• preventing heart attack and stroke
• improving rates of cervical cancer screening
• eliminating industrial produced trans fat from the food supply

Including the above, a regional training for NCD Surveillance has been called for December 2012 in Seoul Korea, to support the development of national targets.

 EMRO Regional Committee Meeting, Cairo, Egypt

A resolution on NCDs was adopted at the EMRO Regional Meeting highlighting the need to:

•  By all governments to establish by 2013, multi-sectoral national plans to address NCDs
• urged governments to begin following through on their commitments made in the Political Declaration, including an emphasis on surveillance, prevention and health care.

AFRO Regional Consultations on NCDs Nairobi, Kenya

The WHO Regional Office for Africa organised a regional workshop for NCDs Directors/Focal Points on addressing NCDs in countries of the Region. The meeting was attended by representatives from ministries of health, research and academic institutions, development partners and civil society. The NCD Alliance was formally invited to participate and sent representation to the workshop. At the workshop the primary issues discussed:

• overall agreement for a strategy to reduce risk factors with the improvement and encouragement of health options. It called for multi-sectoral partnerships that included both government and the private sector given the resource constraints in African countries
• strong support to ensure adequate access to medicines and technologies recognizing the gap that their nations have in treating and care for people with NCDs.