2017•03•03     Geneva

The Eighth Meeting of the United Nations Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases was held in Geneva, 21-23 February, 2017. Hosted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the meeting was jointly chaired by representatives of WHO and UNHCR, and attended by 28 UN agencies, programmes and funds, and regional intergovernmental organizations including the United Nations University-International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). The Task Force discussed the challenges of ongoing activities of the Task Force, and the direction of future work to support countries in the areas of tobacco control, harmful use of alcohol, surveillance, and improving the management of NCDs in emergencies as well as ongoing joint programmes on cervical cancer, and mobile. The Interim Director of UNU-IIGH, Dr Obijiofor Aginam represented UNU-IIGH in the meeting and shared the Institute’s activities on NCDs including the forthcoming international conference on “Obesity Crisis in Southeast Asia”. The meeting was preceded by a side event, a seminar on “Non-communicable Diseases and Human Rights” held on 20 February, 2017. The report of the meeting is accessible on the WHO website here.