Today, on the occasion of the World Cancer Congress being hosted by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) in Paris, a new Practical guide on how to build effective national and regional NCD alliances is being launched. 

The guide is designed to support new NCD alliances through their establishment phase by outlining the steps involved and offering practical tools. The NCD Alliance has drawn upon the experiences of civil society coalition building for health and non-health goals, and with these insights it also aims to identify concrete ways that alliances can enhance their impact and efficiency. 

"While agreeing with the principle of coalition-building, it can be difficult to understand how to create an effective and sustainable NCD Alliance from the ground up. Consequently, this guide outlines some key steps involved in strategic alliance-building that can streamline participating organisations’ efforts and maximise their collective impact", said Katie Dain, NCDA Executive Director.

The new digital guide is enhanced with interactive features that make it simple to navigate to relevant tools, case studies and resources.

The NCD Alliance has traced the growth of national and regional alliances across the world over the last several years. In its 2015 Situational Analysis of these organisations, their great diversity and potential for impact was highlighted, as was the need for more guidance on what it means to build an effective NCD alliance.

To address this need and to enable budding alliances to learn from the experiences and successes of others, we have collaboratively developed this new interactive digital guide. While its relevance to the work of cancer advocates is clear and has been explored at the conference, a wide variety of organisations stand to benefit from the kinds of collaborations that it explores.

This publication aims to shed light on the process of building NCD alliances, focusing on the granular details and providing concrete tools and examples for advocates to adopt in their own national and regional efforts.

Incorporating a variety of case studies drawn from existing organisations such as the European Chronic Disease Alliance, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, and the Danish NCD Alliance, the Guide begins by outlining the rationale for working in alliances before moving on to offer practical steps and tools for establishing new ones.

The publication has been built on the experiences of coalition building for health and non-health goals. In particular, it has drawn on inputs from coalitions working on NCDs, nutrition and HIV/AIDS.

Cristina Parsons Perez, NCDA's Capacity Development Director, introduces the guide in the video below. Check it out!