The report "Achieving 25 x 25 through civil society coalitions" was launched last week at the first-ever NCD Alliance Forum 2015 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The NCD Alliance commissioned the independent situational analysis of national and regional NCD alliances in the lead-up to the Forum. It aims to: 

• Understand how NCD alliances have developed and how their growth can be accelerated and sustained;
• Obtain a snapshot of national/regional priorities and advocacy, with a basic inventory of advocacy activities currently being undertaken;
• Identify key challenges and support needs and inform NCDA's capacity-building programme;
• Identify key assets and opportunities for potential cooperation between countries;
• Inform the development of NCDA's national strategy and its 2016-2020 strategic plan. 

The situational analysis highligths the significant number of national and regional alliances that have emerged in the past five years around the world. The findings of this report demonstrate that the alliances are extremely diverse. No two alliances are the same, and therefore no entirely uniform approach can be formulated for working with them.

Despite the fact that the movement is relatively young, the report identifies a wealth of good practices within alliances, ranging from governance and management to advocacy, information exchange and accountability. Most alliances have been succesful in engaging key civil society partners, influencing government decisions, and supporting the development of NCD policies. Areas that have had less traction to date include the involvement of CSOs in government mechanisms, CSO monitoring of government commitments, and engaging with non-health actors for advocacy efforts. There is a crucial demand for improved mechanisms and platforms to share experiences and good practices between and across alliances, to create a stronger community of practice. 

To further strenghten this network of alliances, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, this report brings to the fore a series of important capacity-building needs that should inform future initiatives by NCDA and other international and regional partners in the field of NCDs. These include coalition building, strategic planning and campaign planning, resourcce mobilisation strategies, and working with the private sector. Furthermore, a number of factors are highlighted by alliances, such as poor implementation of national NCD plans and policies, which are also notable for a wide range of stakeholders committed to advancing the NCD response.