The Cambodian NCD Alliance was officially launched on 28 March 2019 in Phnom Penh. The launch event was organised by the four founding members – GIZ, Louvain Coopération, WHO and MoPoTsyo, with financial support from P4H and GIZ. The event was a significant opportunity to bring together those who: work on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) or their risk factors, represent the voice of people living with NCDs, represent the broader health or non-health sector whose work is relevant to NCDs, are interested in a shared agenda, and have experience mobilising high-level political support and shaping policy priorities.
High-level representatives from the Ministry of Health and the National Aids Authority participated in the official launch, alongside the founding members and around 80 participants representing civil society, development partners, UN agencies, people living with NCDs, the private sector, medical associations, and academic institutions.
Dr Bart Jacobs, Policy Advisor for the GIZ Social Health Protection Project opened the event with an overview of NCDs in Cambodia, the challenges for society from both a health and economic perspective and introduced the purpose and objectives of the alliance. This was followed by official remarks from Dr Nargiza Khodjaeva, Technical Lead for NCDs and Health through the Life-Course at the World Health Organization and one of the founding members of the alliance. His Excellency Dr Tia Phalla, Vice Chair of the National Aids Authority was also invited to give official remarks where he reflected on key milestones in the HIV/AIDS response and learning for the prevention and control of NCDs.
During her keynote speech Her Excellency Dr Or Vandine, Secretary of State from the Ministry of Health, expressed concern for the amount of people suffering from NCDs in Cambodia and noted that collectively, NCDs are the biggest cause of death in Cambodia. Dr Or Vandine spoke about the most common risk factors in Cambodia today and the need for a change in people’s behavior to prevent and manage NCDs. Further, she also noted that the establishment of the Cambodian NCD Alliance is an important opportunity to develop a common agenda and build consensus for action.
After Dr Or Vandine’s speech the logo for the Cambodian NCD Alliance was unveiled and the alliance officially launched with a series of official photos and interviews with the press. This was followed by a series of presentations given by government and non-government representatives, from both Cambodia and the region, who are working on different aspects of NCD prevention and control. Topics covered included: the regional and global agenda for NCDs, diabetes care and support, digital health for diabetes management, primary prevention strategies, regional alliances, multisectoral strategies, and treatment of cancer. This concluded the official launch and morning proceedings.
A workshop was organised by the secretariat in the afternoon to provide a space for more active participation and feedback from members, and those interested in becoming members of the alliance. The workshop began with a presentation of the results of a survey which was distributed 6 weeks earlier to 80 respondents. The purpose of the survey was to understand the perceived benefits and concerns about alliance and the level of support for different policies for NCD prevention and control. The survey results provided quantitative and some qualitative information and informed the design of the workshop.
The objectives for the afternoon were to collect feedback from participants on the preferred way of working and to identify short-term, realistic and achievable actions in primary prevention, secondary prevention and treatment of NCDs. The secretariat representative and lead facilitator developed a series of questions and activities to engage the participants and produce feedback. The information has been recorded and collated to inform the next steps and priorities for the Cambodian NCD Alliance.
