Strategic direction I: Sustain the progress made in the national response to NCDs

NCD governance, policy, plan and coordination

Countries in South-East Asia Region have shown their commitment to NCDs through national NCD multisectoral plans. These plans guide a “whole-of-government” approach. They should be updated regularly and should guide focused implementation of policies to prevent NCDs. National mechanisms may be established, as appropriate, to maintain the momentum on multisectoral action.

There should be continued advocacy for a multisectoral approach within countries to address NCDs, including the allocation of adequate finance and human resources. Capacity development initiatives aimed at health and non-health partners and at developing return-on-investment cases for other sectors with a joint analysis of outputs can help in actions from all sectors (27).

There are many noncommunicable diseases and multiple risk factors, requiring the involvement of a wide range of interventions, platforms for action and stakeholders. A strong governance structure is essential to implement, sustain and monitor policies and action plans. A national group can help distil the information and data from many sources and feed it into the national NCD response. A good example is the Country Coordinating Mechanism, a national committee that submits funding applications to the Global Fund and oversees grants on behalf of their country (28). A similar approach could be considered for NCDs. National NCD alliances could support the coordinating mechanism by providing platforms for engaging multiple stakeholders. WHO Global Coordination Mechanism (29) is supporting this work and will be producing more guidance (30).