Inspiring leaders, mobilising financing, and powering up communities — the global noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) community has set an ambitious agenda for the 2024 Global NCD Alliance (NCDA) Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Forum takes place on 20-22 October, less than a year before the 2025 United Nations High-level Meeting (UNHLM) on NCDs. As such, the main goal of the global gathering is to accelerate national, regional and global advocacy towards the UNHLM. The theme is Leadership on NCDs towards 2025 and beyond.
The invitation-only Forum will include curated and parallel sessions, as well as three newly announced plenary sessions:
- Plenary 1 – 2025 and beyond: Leaderships in NCDs, from grassroots to governments;
- Plenary 2 – Bridging the financing gap: Sustainable investments and financing solutions for NCDs;
- Plenary 3 – Powering up communities: Fueling progress against noncommunicable diseases.
The three plenary sessions reflect the three Forum sub-themes: Inspiring leaders, Mobilising sustainable financing, and Powering up communities.
Plenary 1 will reflect on the global response to NCDs until now and look ahead to 2025, which marks a critical juncture. It is the end date of the current global NCD targets and of the next UNHLM. This session will explore the hard-fought gains and progress achieved in NCD prevention and treatment, remaining challenges and fault lines for 2025 and beyond, and the transformations and innovations needed to surmount those. The event will spotlight the leaders who are on the frontlines, advancing effective policies and solutions — from government officials to grassroots activists. It will unpack the motivations, enablers and strategies used to make systemic change in addressing NCDs.
The second plenary will explore the global investment gap and financing solutions for NCDs, a major priority for the UNHLM. NCDs remain one of the most underfunded global health priorities, with a stark and persistent mismatch between the NCD burden and global and domestic spending to address it. However, there is growing evidence, consensus and momentum about the fiscal policies and other solutions to bridge this gap. This session will showcase global and national best practices in NCD financing, explore the outcomes of the 2nd International dialogue on sustainable financing, and discuss goals for the financing agenda in 2025 and beyond.
Plenary 3 will focus on the vital role of civil society and communities globally in advancing the NCD response, and some ingredients for success, including:
- Providing enabling environments
- Using inclusive governance mechanisms
- Promoting social participation.
This session will also promote strategies to make the meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs more than a slogan. This includes leveraging the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework on Meaningful Engagement of People Living with NCDs and Mental Health and Neurological Conditions and NCDA’s Global Charter on Meaningful Engagement of People Living with NCDs as essential advocacy resources.
Finally, the plenary will work to foster a collective sense of the NCD community as a growing global movement dedicated to leading the NCD response, especially ahead of the UNHLM in 2025.
Further information about the conference progamme will be announced in the coming months.