Building national capacity for NCDs requires developing the knowledge, skills, commitment, structures, systems and leadership to enable effective actions to be undertaken to prevent and control NCDs.

In the past decade, countries have expanded their capacities to respond to the epidemic of noncommunicable diseases. Real progress has been made, though it has been uneven. Available data comes from an assessment of country capacity to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases and reveals major gaps in health system capacity in many low- and middle-income countries.