NCD Alliance

Are you attending World Cancer Congress 2014?

With the increasing importance given to NCDs worldwide, you would not want to miss the latest fresh perspective from frontline health professionals, policymakers, technologists, philosophers and business people on how to address chronic disease challenges.

The NCD Café Program for the World Cancer Congress 2014 welcomes you for a coffee or healthy snack whilst providing a unique space for interactive sessions on NCDs, with a focus on integration, partnerships and multidisciplinary experiences in low and middle-income countries.

As part of NCD Alliance Program ‘Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action’, the South Africa NCD Alliance held a meeting last week in Johannesberg, entitled NCDs Health Systems Strengthening Kopano. The meeting engaged over 90 stakeholders from a range of sectors.

The meeting took place in Johannesburg and engaged patient advocacy groups, civil society, national and provincial health department officials, trade and professional associations, researchers, and others.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is holding a European Youth Essay Competition, calling for responses to the following question:

Why is Access to Medicines a pressing European issue today? What role should universities play in solving the global medical access and innovation crisis?

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will play an important part of the programme of the upcoming 2014 World Cancer Congress, with a suite of plenaries, sessions and side events that are of relevance to the wider NCD community beyond cancer.

Our Programme includes the following sessions:

1-Health in the post-2015 development agenda: Investing in NCDs for a healthy future for all

2-Connect and discuss with NCD experts

3-A shared commitment: The need for a multisectoral response to NCDs

As part of the NCD Alliance Program ‘Strengthening Health Systems, Supporting NCD Action’, the South Africa NCD Alliance is holding a meeting entitled NCDs Health Systems Strengthening Kopano; Kopano being Setswana for meeting, unity, together.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) is collaborating with the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society to strengthen the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition for Tobacco Control.

A meeting is being held today in Trinidad to initiate a process that will lead to the official establishment of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition for Tobacco Control.

November 14 is World Diabetes Day (WDD). Led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), the day unites the global diabetes community to produce a powerful voice for diabetes awareness and advocacy.

Healthy Living and Diabetes is the World Diabetes Day theme for 2014-2016. This year’s activities and materials focus on the importance of starting the day with a healthy breakfast.

The NCD Alliance has joined 200+ organizations around the world to launch the first-ever Universal Health Coverage Day on 12 December 2014.

This historic coalition will mark the anniversary of a landmark UN resolution urging all countries to provide universal access to health care without financial hardship.

No one should fall into poverty because they get sick and need health care. Universal health coverage is essential for making progress on NCDs – and for creating a fairer, more resilient society.

As the world’s population reaches the 7 billion mark, we know that the 7th billion infant just born is more likely to die from a non-communicable disease than any other illness. NCDs — including cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes — cause more deaths than all other diseases combined; an estimated 36 million every year in total. And they strike hardest at the world’s low- and middle-income populations.

The 6th session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) took place in Moscow, 13-18 October.

During the meeting, key decisions relating to NCDs were made. Among these, the adoption of guidelines on price and tax measures (Article 6) is particularly significant.