"Expanding Access to Care, Supporting global, regional, and country level NCD Action" is an NCD Alliance programme in partnership with Medtronic Philanthropy.
Established in 2016, the Healthy India Alliance’s mission is to create an enabling environment for active participation of health and non-health CSOs in the prevention and control NCDs through effective policies, partnerships, and programmes.In its first year, the Healthy India Alliance (HIA) – constituted of 16 members – initiated and laid out the groundwork for collective civil society advocacy on NCD related action in India. Priority actions included mapping and benchmarking of the Indian NCD policy agenda, empowering civil society to monitor Government policies and promote accountability towards the NCD targets, and leveraging global developments on NCDs and SDGs to boost national action.
As part of its coalition building work, the alliance conducted the first National NCD Civil Society Consultation (April 25-27, 2016) involving approximately 80 CSOs in conjunction with the WHO Country Office for India, the NCDA, and the American Cancer Society (ACS). The meeting was attended by representatives from the Indian Department of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and included capacity building workshops. It provided an interface between the government, UN institutions (WHO, UNDP, UNICEF) and CSOs, to develop strategic partnerships.
HIA has rapidly established itself as a credible NCD civil society authority among decision makers. This is evidenced in its role at the “National Consultation on NCDs” organised by WHO Country Office for India and MoHFW on June 22, 2016. HIA was requested to mobilise its partners to partake in the deliberations and provide the civil society perspective.
In 2016, HIA was able to mobilise its members to write a letter on behalf of the alliance to the Minister of Health around the need to implement 85% tobacco pictorial warnings. The MoH upheld the implementation of the 85% pictorial despite the intense tobacco lobby.
There has been strong support among HIA members on prioritising patient and care giver led advocacy and palliative care within the scope of HIA activities. A workshop on “Needs Assessment – Capacities of Patients to Manage Non-Communicable Diseases and Lead Advocacy for their Prevention and Control”, was organised on September 2, 2016, under the umbrella of HIA by Nada India Foundation (NIF) and DakshamA. The focus of the workshop was partly to orient people living with NCDs, care givers and community leaders about their role as advocates in the prevention and control of NCDs.
More information about HIA’s organizational history and past accomplishments will appear here within the coming weeks, stay tuned!