Programme coordinator for the gambia, the defeat-ncd partnership Banjul

ABOUT THE DEFEAT-NCD PARTNERSHIP The Defeat-NCD Partnership is a practical evidence-based response to the widespread call for action on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We are a public-private-people partnership that envisions universal health coverage for NCDs. We assist low-resource countries that are either economically or institutionally challenged to scale-up sustained and sustainable action on NCDs. The Defeat-NCD Partnership was launched at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York on 24th September 2018, with the strong support of the World Health Organization (WHO), has been hosted by the United Nations since its original set-up. In 2023 it has been established as an independent organization headquartered in Geneva, in accordance with Articles 60 et sequent of the Swiss Civil Code. The Defeat-NCD Partnership continues to strengthen its ongoing work and collaboration with its long-term strategic partners within the United Nations System, including WHO, and especially the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) with which it has concluded a long-term strategic partnership agreement to further the co-development, resource mobilisation, and implementation of joint projects and activities related to areas including NCDs, digital health, training, research, and capacity building. Our efforts are aimed specifically at Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4 on the reduction by 2030 of one-third of premature mortality from NCDs through prevention and treatment. But our contribution also helps towards other SDGs on universal health coverage (3.8), health training and workforce (3C), country capacity development (3D), as well as SDG 5 on gender equality, SDG 10 on reducing inequality, SDG 13 on building knowledge and capacity to meet climate change, and SDG 17 on mobilising additional finances for development. Our practical work is organised under four key action pillars: 1. National NCD Capacity Building: The purpose of this pillar is to ensure that partner countries have essential institutional capacities, structures, systems, and financing in place to tackle NCDs in a sustained and sustainable manner. 2. Community Scale-Up of NCD Services: This Pillar seeks to bring more of the necessary prevention and management of NCD services directly to more people who need them. 3. Affordability and Accessibility of Essential NCD Supplies: This Pillar enables the consistent provision of affordable essential NCD medicines, diagnostics, and equipment in low resource countries. 4. Financing for Country-Level NCD Programming: The objective of this Pillar is to establish context-specific long-term sustainable financing models for NCD programming in low-resource countries. The GAMBIA A principal focus for The Defeat-NCD Partnership was on the West African nation of The Gambia which bears a very high burden from NCDs: 34% of all total annual mortality, with cancers, chronic respiratory conditions, and diabetes as the top killers. Hypertension, obesity, and smoking are the critical risk factors, and diabetic retinopathy the leading cause of blindness among the working age population. Meanwhile, The Gambia is one of the world’s poorest low-income countries with limited programming capacity. The Defeat-NCD Partnership provided technical assistance to The Gambia Ministry of Health to complete and launch its Costed Action Plan, alongside the World Health Organization and World Bank. The launch was by the President of The Gambia signifying strong national leadership commitment. The Costed Action Plan seeks US$ 57.8 million over the five years of The Gambia’s National Multisector NCDs Strategy , to reduce NCD mortality by over a third. The ongoing assistance of The Defeat-NCD Partnership to The Gambia seeks to help the nation acquire domestic and international resources, mobilise and expand implementation capacity for NCD education, prevention, and control in government and non-government programmes, increase reliable and affordable access to essential NCD supplies, and assist the quality monitoring and evaluation of the programme. The Defeat-NCD Partnership in collaboration with the Gambia Ministry of Health has gone on to mobilise US$ 650,000 from the World Diabetes Foundation for The Gambia Costed Action Plan, through our joint resource mobilisation efforts. This will go towards implementation with local partners on implementation of Gambia’s National NCD Strategy that has six priority areas: raising priority for NCD prevention and control at national and regional levels through strengthened collaboration and advocacy; strengthening national NCD capacities, leadership, governance, multi-sectoral action and partnerships to accelerate country response for the prevention and control of NCDs; reducing risk factors for NCDs and underlying social determinants though health-promotion and education; strengthening health systems to address the prevention and control of NCDs and the underlying social determinants through people-centred primary health care and universal health coverage; promoting and supporting national capacity for high-quality research and development for the prevention and control of NCDs; and monitoring NCDs and their determinants to effectively evaluate progress at national and regional levels. The Government of The Gambia, supported by The Defeat-NCD Partnership and others, continues to develop additional project proposals towards The Gambia’s costed action plan for further funding. The Defeat-NCD Partnership works in close collaboration with the Gambia Ministry of Health on the roll out of the National Multi-Sectoral Strategy and Costed Action Plan for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Control in The Gambia, available here.
For more information on The Defeat-NCD Partnership, please visit our website.