NCD Partner Forum

In the context and parallel to the advocacy meeting on strategies to reduce non-communicable diseases in Africa, which was held in Bagamoyo, Tanzania in July 2008, a group of key international, regional and local partners met in order to discuss and share ideas, plans and concerns on NCDs in the African region.

As a result of that meeting, a NCD Partner Forum Secretariat was set up.

 

This Partner forum aims at bringing Partners together to build an international network that will foster awareness and reinforce capacities and strategies in the region to address the emerging NCD burden.

 

The objectives pursued by the Partner Forum are as follows:

  • To map out NCD training and capacity building oppor tunities in the region and internationally;

  • To undertake stocktaking on existing interventions, capture the lessons and disseminate the information;

  • In collaboration with the Africa NCD Expert Group, identify priority intervention areas and establish resource mobilization mechanisms;

  • Identify institutions that should be enlisted in th e fight against NCDs and develop appropriateness criteria for an ethical engagement of industry in this effort;

  • Develop and prepare activities towards partners’ pa rticipation during the Global WHO Health Promotion Conference to be held in Nairo bi, Kenya in October 2009;

  • Evaluate the work of the Partners Forum and explore funding opportunities for NCD activities in the region.

 

In 2009, a follow-up meeting to advance this work was held in Entebbe, Uganda gathering both the African NCD Expert Group and the NCD Partner Forum. Following extensive deliberations amongst and between the two groups, it was agreed a Consortium, encompassing associations, organizations and individuals working on NCDs in the region, would be formed with the goal of addressing NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa through the concerted efforts of key players in the region.