Ahead of the Third United Nations High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs), the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has demonstrated its commitment to supporting Member States in reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by adopting a resolution that recognizes the work and achievements of the United Nations Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (UNIATF) and the need for greater resources to be made available for the prevention and control of NCDs.
The resolution was introduced by the Russian Federation with Belarus, France, Hungary, Japan, Portugal, Thailand, Belgium and Uruguay as co-sponsors.
The Council highlighted the progress made by the 40-plus member Task Force in supporting countries to tackle NCDs. Such actions include joint programming and investment case missions to an increasing number of countries and thematic working groups that bring together representatives from across the UN system. The Russian Federation delegation noted that resources and enthusiasm for NCD action have increased in areas where the Task Force has worked.
The Uruguay delegation underscored the contributions the Task Force has made to supporting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4 of reducing premature mortality from NCDs and highlighted legislative, regulatory and capacity-building work as key areas of contribution. Task Force efforts have contributed to 30 targets of 12 SDGs and have had significant implications for country-level multisectoral NCD responses and development policies.
Striving towards commitments made in the 2011 Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs, the 2014 outcome document of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly and more recently during the 2017 WHO Global Conference on the Prevention and Control of NCDs in Montevideo, the Task Force has taken tangible actions to reduce the seven million premature deaths per year from NCDs in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
Noting this progress, the resolution expressed concern over the continued shortage of resources available to the Task Force, and to global NCD work generally, resulting in a gap between the high volume of Member State requests for NCD assistance and the ability of the Task Force to respond to these requests.
In order to scale up the Task Force’s support to Member States and push the international community towards its NCD commitments, the resolution expressed support for the Task Force in its development of innovative financing mechanisms. In particular, the concept of a catalytic multi-donor trust fund was highlighted as an avenue to mobilize the provision of adequate, predictable and sustained resources for the programmatic work of the Task Force, including its four global joint programmes. Such a fund would bring together national governments, bilateral and multilateral donors and the private sector and is in line with Time to Deliver, the recently published report of the WHO Independent High-level Commission on NCDs. Designed to supplement domestic resources and catalyze sustainable country-level action, the fund would provide technical support to Member States in key legislative, regulatory and capacity-building areas.
ECOSOC also called upon the Task Force to strengthen multi-stakeholder action, including through partnerships with civil society, philanthropies and the private sector as appropriate, recognizing that these partners have important roles to play in the implementation of national NCD responses. The resolution concluded by calling on the Task Force to continue and expand its work surrounding regulatory systems, supply chain management, health systems and tobacco control.
This resolution and the UN Secretary General’s 2018 report to ECOSOC on the work of the Task Force will contribute to intergovernmental negotiations on the outcome document of the Third High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly that will take place in New York on 27 September 2018.