The 18th Task Force Meeting was co-hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency and WHO between 29-31 March 2022. Twenty-six members participated.
The meeting agreed Task Force’s 2022-2025 strategy, which continues the direction of the 2019-2021 strategy because the strategic priorities remain as relevant as ever, ensuring at the same time flexibility and responsiveness to reflect new or emerging demands from Member States. An evaluation of the 2022-2025 strategy will be conducted ahead of the Fourth High-level Meeting on NCDs in 2025.
Task Force members also pledged to continue mobilizing resources for the NCD and mental health multi-partner trust fund.
Building on the work of the Inter-Agency working group on NCDs in emergencies, Members also committed to ever greater collective action to deliver humanitarian support in the area of NCDs and mental health to those in need.
A range of actions to encourage countries tackle tobacco use were also agreed, including to scale up interventions to combat illicit trade of tobacco and actions to support tobacco farmers willing to switch to healthier and more sustainable livelihoods.
Progress reports were received from a number of groups including: UN Nutrition, NCD2030, SAFER, and the Health and Climate Change Coalition. Opportunities to scale up health taxes and to promote digital health solutions for NCDs were also discussed.
Task Force members received an update around on-the-ground support provided through the NCD2030 joint programme to countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Activities aimed at strengthening NCD/mental health governance and investment and legal frameworks, have contributed to achieve key policy changes around NCDs and mental health, including the passage of a new mental health bill in Nigeria, and improved NCD treatment access in Uganda.
The importance of embedding human rights more fully into the work of the Task Force was highlighted and a new group to take responsibility for this was established.
A number of agencies committed themselves to stronger action in support of the Global Strategy for cervical cancer elimination at the country level.
Agreement on a call for proposals for the 2022 Task Force awards was also agreed – and this will be published shortly.
The summary of the meeting with actions agreed as well as the new strategy will be made available on the Task Force webpages in due course.