PROPOSED ACTION PLAN ON NONCOMMUNICALBE DISEASES IS REVIEWED BY WORLD HEART FEDERATION

The World Heart Federation was among the 20 nongovernmental organizations consulted by the World Health Organization about its proposed Action Plan for the implementation of its global strategy to prevent cardiovascular disease and the other major noncommunicable diseases.

The group consultation took place on 6 March 2008 at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It was chaired by World Heart Federation Chief Executive Officer Janet Voûte. Ala Alwan, the World Health Organization’s Assistant Director-General for noncommunicable diseases and mental health, provided an introduction.

The World Health Organization plans to present the finished Action Plan to the Sixty-first World Health Assembly when it convenes in Geneva 19-24 May 2008.

Ms Voûte said that she hoped and expected that the World Health Organization would take into account the opinions and concerns of the nongovernmental organisations represented at the half-day consultation.

“I applaud the World Health Organization for reaching out so dutifully to obtain the advice of the NGO (nongovernmental organisation) community,” she said. “The organisations present were able to contribute their enormous and valuable expertise and experience. The Action Plan should be a better document because of it.”

Toward a “stronger document”

Earlier, the World Health Organization had held consultations with the member states and with representatives of industry. “Hopefully, it will be a much stronger document, with the buy in of the three sectors,” said Iqbal Nandra, a World Health Organization spokesman.

Among the opinions and concerns expressed by Ms Voûte were that the Action Plan should:

• Compliment the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.
• More explicitly express that multiple stakeholders should be engaged to help resource-limited countries to implement their national health policies.
• Define realistic indicators for monitoring progress.
• Contemplate the human and financial resources that will be required for implementation.

International partners are key

Dr Alwan addressed the problem of resources. He said that the World Health Organization is giving noncommunicable diseases more attention and funding but that elements of the plan would have to be financed by international partnerships and the member states.

Among the other nongovernmental organisations that participated either in person or online were: the International Association for the Study of Obesity, the International Diabetes Federation, the International Union Against Cancer and the Aga Khan Foundation.

Draft of plan listed six objectives    

The World Health Organization’s Executive Board commented on an early draft of the Action Plan at its annual meeting in January 2008.

The early draft listed six objectives. They were to:

1. Raise awareness of noncommunicable diseases and advocate for their prevention and control.
2. Establish or strengthen, as appropriate, national policies and plans for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
3. Promote specific measures and interventions to reduce the main shared risk factors for noncommunicable diseases: tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol.
4. Promote research for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
5. Promote partnerships for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
6. Establish systems for tracking global progress in the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.