Ghana NCD Alliance was awarded and recognised for their efforts to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) with an award from the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (UNIATF). The award was presented by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Friends of the Task Force award ceremony was held virtually on Thursday 24 September 2020, as a side event of the 75th UN General Assembly. Ghana NCD Alliance were recipients in the non-state actor category alongside NCDA's members Resolve to Save Lives (Vital Strategies) and the McCabe Centre for Law & Cancer. A full recording of the event is now available here. 

Marking the event and launch of the fund, CEO of NCD Alliance, Katie Dain said "the NCD community needs to be actively breaking down the siloes that still dominate global health but are completely irrelevant and non-sensical for people living with multi-morbidity which is now the norm rather than the exception. The UNIATF Multi-Partner Trust Fund on NCDs is a great opportunity and example of how to do this, poised to support low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) access catalytic resources to tackle NCDs as part of their national COVID-19 response and recovery plans."

During the event, Katie Dain called policymakers and health ministers to invest and engage in communities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic adding: 

"This call should be taken up everywhere as a global public good, not only to prevent and contain infection, but also to support communities, raise awareness, and support post-COVID recovery. And within this, our goal should be making lived experience the engine of the movement, and push for meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs (PLWNCDs) in the response. Within this context, we are delighted to see the work of one of our trailblazer national NCD alliances being recognised today with a Trust Fund Award. The Ghana NCD Alliance is being recognised for its advocacy and multisectoral work to put people with NCDs first."

The Ghana NCD Alliance have been working to reduce NCDs through health promotion, system strengthening and improving the lives of PLWNCDs since it was founded in 2017. They continue to participate at national and international events that raise the profile of NCDs in the global health agenda.

More information on all awardees including Ministries of Health and other non-state actors can be found here.