Seminar 4: Preparing for the UN NCD Summit

On 10 November 2010, Sir George Alleyne, director emeritus of the Pan American Health Organization, gave the fourth in C3’s series of International Breakfast Seminars, on the enigmatic subject of ‘King and the non-communicated diseases’. The seminar was held at the House of St Barnabas, Soho, London.

• A short report of the event is below (scroll beyond the video)
• Slides from the event are available here >> (pdf file: 1.7MB)
• A full report of the event is available here >>

The seminar focused on the forthcoming (September 2011) UN High-level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases (referred to as the ‘UN Summit’), and was in three parts.

1. The role of NCDs in international development

Sir George pointed out that mortality from NCDs is rising, and that they have a huge impact on development, contributing to global inequity – there is great investment in R&D for drugs to treat NCDs, but these will be unaffordable and unavailable to most in developing countries. Despite the huge economic impact of NCDs, they have been largely neglected by the international development community. This is partly because of myths about the diseases (that they affect only the rich or the very elderly), and partly because of a lack of good data and that there are no ‘champions’ of the diseases.

2. Why the UN Summit is important

There have been only 27 such meetings in the UN since it was established – and only one (on HIV/AIDS, in 2001) on a disease. This is a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity to do something’, with the potential for a strong Outcomes Document that could generate political commitment and real action.

3. The process for achieving a successful outcome at the Summit

On the day of Sir George’s seminar, discussion was due to begin at the UN on the structure, duration and participation of the Summit, which will lead (later in 2010) to the publication of a Modalities Resolution setting out its format. This process is being led by the two co-facilitators of the Summit (Jamaica and Luxembourg). It is essential that all the appropriate voices are heard, and that there is sufficient time allocated to the Summit – if it is a three-day meeting, which Sir George strongly supports, it will encourage Heads of Government to attend, and will be comprehensive enough to allow NGOs, the international development community and the private sector (among others) to be actively involved. Sir George (and others) expressed concern that there is no one organisation with authority to lead the process, although the NCD Alliance is working to bring the NGO sector together (www.ncdalliance.org).

A successful outcome also depends on a strong declaration of commitment by the UN Member States, committing to address the risk factors, ensure access to treatment, monitor and evaluate progress, etc.

We need many people to be involved in the planning for the Summit – and to avoid in-fighting. This is where Sir George explained the title of his seminar. He noted a comment by Rodney King, who was beaten by police in the United States in 1991. When the police were acquitted the following year, which led to rioting, Mr King commented ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ This is crucial – we need to ensure mutuality of interest, to focus on coordination, consensus and cooperation in the lead up to September 2011 and beyond. In addition, the diseases are ‘non-communicated’ – the media, politicians and general public have not fully appreciated the importance of NCDs for international development.

We have just 10 months to prepare, and then years afterward to deliver on the commitments made – we must look beyond the Summit.

Discussion

Many of those attending the seminar were also attending the launch, later in the day, of the Lancet’s latest series on chronic diseases and development. The discussion was knowledgeable and particularly fruitful, and included:

• How do we overcome the problem that NCDs have a ‘pallid face’? They do not generate much emotion, so they are sidelined by media, politicians and society. Perhaps if people could be made afraid of them, they would be taken more seriously.
• Strengthening health systems – and particularly ‘chronic care’ – is essential.
• There was discussion about the UK government’s plans for the Summit – it is now being discussed between the Department of Health, Foreign Office and Department for International Development.
• Harnessing the power of the internet could be essential – could we create online communities of action on NCD? In particular, many organisations are now looking at stories to give issues a human face. The 3FOUR50 website was mentioned as an important potential repository for stories.
• Sir George talked through some lessons that we could learn from the preparations made for the HIV/AIDS meeting in 2001.
• There is a need for more media tools – perhaps including a documentary.
• There is, apparently, push-back against the idea of a three-day Summit because of the expense, so the case for this length of Summit needs to made by all of us, strongly and repeatedly.