NCD Alliance shared on LinkedIn:
“Against a backdrop of shrinking fiscal space and major reforms to the global health architecture, diverse stakeholders came together yesterday, 21 September, on the sidelines of UNGA81 to explore how we can all act on NCDs better together.
Co-hosted by NCD Alliance and World Health Organization through the Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs, with financial support from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to facilitate logistics, the fifth Multistakeholder Gathering featured perspectives from different countries and sectors.
Moderator Mary-Ann Etiebet, MD, MBA, President and CEO of Vital Strategies, opened the discussion with a question that set the tone for the session: ‘How do we galvanise multisectoral action? What can we do differently every day to build a sovereign, scaled, sustainable and stronger NCD response? How do we do it – and, importantly, who do we do it with?’
Leslie Rae, President of the NCD Alliance, highlighted the significance of the ongoing reform of global health architecture – the system of actors, institutions and rules that shape health worldwide.
Dr Shamim Talukder, Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Health of Bangladesh, shared a country perspective on Bangladesh’s joint declaration for the integrated prevention and control of NCDs. The declaration commits to a ‘health in all policies’ approach.
Flemming Konradsen, Chief Scientific Officer of Novo Nordisk Foundation, reflected on the role of private philanthropy in supporting country-led implementation, integrating NCDs into existing health infrastructure, and avoiding the creation of parallel structures or further fragmentation.
Meaningful participation was a central theme throughout the discussion. Paula Johns, Co-founder and Executive Director of ACT Promoção da Saúde, shared lessons learned on building successful collaborations between civil society and government in Brazil.
Prisca Githuka, Member of the Our Views, Our Voices Global Advisory Committee, cancer advocate and founder of Pink Hearts Cancer Support Foundation in Kenya, continued the discussion by noting the distinction between meaningful participation and tokenism.
‘Meaningful engagement means influence,’ she said. ‘If we invite people living with NCDs into a process without giving their voices a genuine opportunity to influence decisions, we are not truly engaging them.’
Closing the session, Dr Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director-General (ADG), Division of Prevention, Promotion and Care at WHO, highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement, recognising that each actor has a different role to play.
NCD Alliance CEO, Katie Dain, added to his comments, reinforcing the role of people living with NCDs.”
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