NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

The most significant threat to global health is the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). These conditions — including cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental illness and respiratory conditions — are responsible for two-thirds  of death and disability globally. And because they disproportionately afflict people in developing countries, they are strongly linked with development and social justice.

Although the global health landscape is teeming with organisations trying to tackle NCDs, there are two major gaps in the current response. Firstly, a lack of alignment has led to duplicated effort in some areas and a complete vacuum in others. The second gap is the lack of a neutral forum for sharing data, lessons learned and evidence-based strategies, including the crucial area of ‘implementation science’.

The WHO Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs, with which I am affiliated, was established by the WHO director-general in 2014 to address both these gaps and ultimately boost aid effectiveness.