On Sunday 24 January, the South African Medical Research Council and the Palliative Care Action Group are proud to co-host a webinar that aims to highlight the imperative for a concerted and collaborative effort to accelerate access to palliative care and to report on the measures that are being taken towards implementation.
Register now at: https://samrc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rGUJpH4dTHK8Lz0XmcD6SA
An adaptation of the weekly global epidemiological update for the whole of Africa by including the WHO Afro and Eastern Mediterranean Regions.
Data as received by WHO from national authorities, as of 10am CET 6 December 2020
Globally in the past week, cases of COVID-19 have remained at approximately 4 million new cases, while new deaths have continued to increase to over 73 000. This brings the cumulative numbers to over 65.8 million reported cases and 1.5 million deaths globally since the start of the pandemic.
The African NCDs Network is conducting a survey to understand the experiences, needs, challenges and priorities of African Persons Living with NCDs.
We will be grateful if you support this initiative by getting the survey to it’s target population; that is People Living with an NCD or care partners/ caregivers in the sub regions of Africa.
Taking this survey will help inform advocacy efforts to support PLWNCDS and build back better after COVID-19 in Africa.
Please kindly plan and have the survey take by latest, September 29, 2020. Here is the link: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5825335/Needs-Challenges-and-Priorities-of-African-Persons-Living-with-NCDs-during-the-COVID-19-Period
If you missed our webinar, hosted on 15 September 2020.
Topic: Accountability – how to build back better health care for people living with non-communicable diseases after COVID-19.
As every year, WHO regional offices schedule their Regional Committee Meetings (RCM) between the months of August and October, to discuss and monitor progress on regional commitments. The first RCM was the 70th Session of the Regional Committee for Africa, which took place on August 25th and was held virtually for the first time.
As part of our post-World Health Assembly regional advocacy efforts, the NCD Alliance supported a virtual delegation comprised of Vicki Pinkney-Atkinson from South Africa and chair of the African NCDs Network (ANN) Secretariat and person living with NCDs, and George Msengi from Tanzania and member of the Secretariat of the ANN to participate in the meeting.
Due to the shortened, 1-day virtual format, the AFRO RCM considered only a few agenda items including the Work of WHO in the African Region 2019–2020; a special event on the COVID-19 response in the region, and ‘Celebrating the certification of wild poliovirus eradication in the African Region’.
NCD Alliance and ANN submitted a joint statement on the ‘Special event on the COVID-19 response in the WHO African Region’ calling Member States in the AFRO region to elevate the voices of people living with NCDs, young people and marginalised populations, by assessing the pandemic’s impact on their needs, challenges and priorities; and to include them in COVID-19 decision-making processes and responses.
The joint statement was supported by Alliance des Organisations de lutte contre les MNT – Côte d’Ivoire, Africa Diabetes Alliance, Africa Stroke Organization, Burkina Faso NCD Alliance, Burundi NCD Alliance, Cameroon Civil Society NCD Alliance, Coalition des ONG et Associations – Contre les MNT au Togo, Community Development Awareness and Health Empowerment Foundation, Fondation de Lutte contre le Diabète et les MNT, Foundation for the fight against Diabetes and NCDs, Ghana NCD Alliance, Malawi NCD Alliance, NCD Alliance Nigeria, NCD Alliance of Kenya, Rwanda NCD Alliance, South African NCDs Alliance, Tanzania NCD Alliance, and West African Alcohol Policy Alliance.
The statement highlighted the link between NCDs, COVID-19 and achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by encouraging WHO AFRO and Member States to:
You can access NCDA’s Advocacy Briefing for the AFRO RCM here; and the statement submitted here.