“It is virtually immoral to save the lives of millions of children early and leave them to die of NCDs prematurely.”
This sentiment was expressed by Sir George Alleyne, Director Emeritus of the Pan American Health Organization and Co-chair of the High-level Policy Expert Group which guided the recently concluded SIDS Ministerial Conference on NCDs and Mental Health.
Sir George was addressing the closing session of the conference last Thursday, where he told delegates that the same importance that was ascribed to the millennium development goals, some of which focused on childhood illness, should be given to the issue of NCDs.
“In 2000, the world accepted the millennium development goals…, and many of us here were witness to the childhood revolution. It is virtually immoral to save the lives of millions of children early and leave them to die of NCDs prematurely. That’s not right.
“And for most of us, that is the motive for being involved [in the fight] against NCDs; the idea that the childhood revolution should be continued into the adult revolution which deals with the problem of NCDs,” he underscored.
The aim of the conference was to accelerate national responses towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 – to reduce by one-third by the year 2030, premature deaths from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment, and promote mental health and well-being.
The 2023 Bridgetown Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health was agreed to and launched at the conference, and sets out how SIDS countries will go about achieving this goal.
Sir George noted that during the SIDS conference held in Barbados in 1994, the then declaration, which laid out 14 points that SIDS should take in order to advance sustainable development, did not address the area of health at all. However, he said that had changed over the years because of the recognition of “the evolution of the climate crisis” and of the importance of NCDs and mental health disorders.
The public health expert further stated that while there was some credence to the concept of personal responsibility, it was not enough when it came to addressing NCDs. He outlined a number of measures through which success in the fight against NCDs could be measured.
“So how do you change the architecture in such a way that the healthy choice becomes the easy choice? What would success look like? We should have in every one of the SIDS, the data to demonstrate that there has been a reduction in the incidence of NCDs. For me, that would be success.
“The other success is something that has been spoken about many times, that there is evidence that SIDS speak with one voice. But, that cannot happen unless there are mechanisms to facilitate the change to allow SIDS to do so,” Sir George explained.
He added that another indicator of success would include more investment in health and NCDs, not just from Governments but other sources as well.
“I would like to see from presidents to permanent secretaries make NCDs part of their national aspirations. But, for that to happen, the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches have to be realities.
“Finally, I would like to see the communication industry make NCDs their own. Not that they are committed to reporting on NCDs only, but that they are committed to the improvement of the situation with NCDs at the country level. That they commit to regular programming on informing the public about the nature of the problem. For the communication industry to own the situation,” Sir George advised.