A European regional meeting on ‘The European Response to Chronic Diseases – the role of civil society’, co-organised by the European Chronic Disease Alliance (ECDA) and the NCD Alliance and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, is taking place in Brussels between the 12^th and 13^th December, 2016.

This event will convene Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from across the region while serving to follow-up on the adoption of the 2016-2025 WHO European action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs.

Given the series of landmark political commitments that have elevated NCDs onto national and global health and development agendas over the last six years, the responsibility for action has shifted to the national and regional levels. This shift has also carved out a clear role for civil society’s advocacy, accountability, and service delivery contributions.

Consequently, this gathering of over 60 representatives of European organisations involved in the NCD response will serve to catalyse a stronger and more unified NCD civil society movement in the region.

The main objectives of the meeting revolve around the “Three C’s” of ‘Convene’, ‘Capacity’, and ‘Collaboration’:

• To convene NCD CSO’s in the region in order to share experiences, challenges, lessons learnt and good practices and identify ways for the different CSO platforms working on NCDs across both the EU and WHO European region to effectively work together and define common regional advocacy priorities;
• To strengthen the capacity of NCD CSO’s in the region, with a particular focus on supporting the emergence of national/regional NCD alliances to drive advocacy, policy, and accountability;
• To support implementation of the 2016-2025 WHO European action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs, and other regional NCD priorities, through effective collaboration between CSOs, within and across countries, with WHO Regional Office for Europe, European Union (EU) and national policymakers. 

The meeting will result in an outline of key priorities for joint action for the NCD CSO movement in the WHO European region under the framework of the 2016-2025 WHO European action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs, key recommendations and areas for collaboration between CSOs, WHO Regional Office for Europe, the NCD Alliance, and ECDA.

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