The Non-communicable Disease (NCD) Alliance, Nigeria, has called on the Federal Government to invest more to fulfill universal health coverage across the country.
Mr Katie Dain, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NCD Alliance, made this known in a statement issued by its Communication Advisor, Abiola Awe, in Lagos on Wednesday.
NCD Alliance Nigeria was established and modelled after the global NCD Alliance, to bring together various non-governmental organisations.
This is in order to raise the political priority of NCDs; build public awareness; and provide support for education, treatment, and patient concerns.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), NCDs, also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors.
Dain said they were bringing together civil society organisations around the world in calling on governments to ensure that everyone had access to quality healthcare, regardless of their ability to pay, where they lived or who they were.
Dain said the group was calling on governments, ministers of finance and health, donors, international agencies, and the private sector to invest in prevention and care of NCDs to speed up integration of NCDs into UHC benefits packages.
According to him, this is to also align with sustainable development and global health priorities; and to engage people living with NCDs in decisions that affect their health.
He said: “The moment for caring is now. Governments must seize the opportunity that this High-Level Meeting offers us to ensure that UHC is achieved for all people.
“NCDs are included as a priority within UHC benefit packages, and that affected communities are meaningfully involved within health decision-making and service design and delivery
“Beyond the human toll of NCDs, they also take a devastating economic toll on households and countries.
“Together, the five leading NCDs – cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, cancer, diabetes, and mental health and neurological conditions, these have been estimated to cost more than US$ 2 trillion per year (or US$ 47 trillion between 2011-2030).
“This burden is most evident in developing countries.”
Dain said this must include care for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like cancer, diabetes and heart disease as over 25 per cent of the world’s eight billion people live with at least one NCD.
He noted that each year NCDs cut short 41 million lives, accounting for 74 per cent of all deaths worldwide, adding that they also caused half of all global disability and drived millions of people into poverty.
The CEO said this year’s global week for action coincided with the United Nations High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Universal Health Coverage slated for Sept. 21.
Dain said the day offered the opportunity for governments to agree on specific actions to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, a commitment previously made by all world leaders.
He said at least half of the world’s population does not currently have full coverage of essential health services, saying that most of these people live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The NCD chief said UHC was the most powerful tool they had to reduce health inequities and close the care gap.
Dain said by introducing a realistic and cost-effective package of 21 NCD prevention and treatment interventions, governments could avert these losses along with 39 million deaths in LMICs.
Also speaking, the President, NCD Alliance Nigeria, Dr Sonny Kuku said these interventions could generate an average net economic benefit of $2.7 trillion, or $390 per capita, between 2023 and 2030.
“We are calling on civil society, governments, international partners, international NGOs, foundations, and philanthropies, where and as appropriate private sectors, the research community and academia, and all stakeholders committed to achieving health for all.
“This is to accelerate efforts to meaningfully involve people living with NCDs, as a necessary step to improve NCD prevention and control,” he said.
Kuku said this rallies stakeholders to fulfil the rights of people living with NCDs to participate in decision-making as an essential feature of their right to the highest attainable standard of health,” he said.
The president said a virtual event co-hosted by the World Health Organization, the World Diabetes Foundation and the NCD Alliance towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.
He said Multi-stakeholder gathering on tackling Noncommunicable diseases would explore the cross-cutting actions to strengthen the prevention and control of NCDs and mental health issues.
Kuku said this webinar would be held at the start of the Global Week for Action on Sept. 14, and would feature the launch of the WHO Global Mapping Report on Multisectoral Actions to Strengthen the Prevention and Control of NCDs and Mental Health.
