NCDI Poverty Network Steering Committee Holds Third Meeting to Review Progress and Plan Next Steps

The NCDI Poverty Network Steering Committee held its third meeting on 22 September 2021 to assess progress and make plans to advance the Network’s four strategic initiatives.

Attendees included: Network Co-Chairs Ana Mocumbi and Gene Bukhman; Steering Committee members Yogesh Jain, Sharon Kapambwe, Julie Makani, Aimée Lulebo, Biraj Karmacharya, Jones Kaponda Masiye, Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, Santigie Sesay, and two Voices of NCDI Poverty Fellows representing people living with NCDIs, Moses Echodu and Paladie Kampuhwe Mategeko; and staff from the Network Co-Secretariat teams based in Boston, USA, and Maputo, Mozambique.

The two-hour meeting was divided into two sessions, with the first session focused on updates on strategic initiatives and the second focused on discussion of Network structure and organization.

Developments covered in the first session included:

• Strategic Initiative #1 – Expanding the Network

  • Phase 1 Commissions in Benin, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria have held kick-off meetings; planning continues for inaugural meetings for the Burkina Faso, Cambodia, and Ghana commissions.

  • Three Learning Workshops have convened for the benefit of new Commissions, covering themes including: the Global Burden of Disease (GBD); NCDI health interventions coverage; and NCDI financing. A fourth Learning Workshop on priority-setting is planned for early November.

  • Four Voices of NCDI Poverty Advocacy Fellows selected in June have been meeting regularly to discuss individual advocacy campaigns and joint initiatives that address issues such as NCDI stigma and accessibility to medicine; starting with the September meeting, two representatives of the Fellows will participate as voting members of the Steering Committee.

• Strategic Initiative #2 – Integration Science

  • The Center for Integration Science in Global Health Delivery will officially launch at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in February 2022 with financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), in addition to current funding from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), and Helmsley Charitable Trust (HCT).

  • The Center for Integration Science has been invited to apply for designation as an official WHO Collaborating Center by WHO’s NCD Integrated Service Delivery unit.

• Strategic Initiative #3 – PEN-Plus Partnership

  • Thirty-one institutions met on 23 June 2021 for the initial PEN-Plus partnership meeting to review and approve the Terms of Reference, introduce the structure of Working Groups, and make preliminary plans for the external launch in early 2022.

  • WHO/AFRO has included a regional strategy for implementation of PEN-Plus on the agenda for its Regional Committee meeting in August 2022.

  • Ten new countries have established partnerships, developed plans, and secured funding to initiate PEN-Plus implementation: Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nepal, and Chattisgarh State (India).

  • PEN-Plus Working Groups covering Training & E-Learning, Advocacy & Financing, and Monitoring & Evaluation and Research held their first meetings and will continue to meet once every three months.

• Strategic Initiative #4 – National Scale-up and NCDI Poverty Fund

  • The NCDI Poverty Network is working with HCT to support PEN-Plus implementation in eight countries: Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nepal, and Chhatisgarh State (India).

  • Funding to implement PEN-Plus in Ethiopia and Tanzania has been secured from a private donor.  

In the second session, topics discussed included:

• PEN-Plus Partnership Membership application updates;

• Conflict of interest considerations; and

• The NCDI Poverty Network Advisory Group, which will be comprised of organizations that have invested in the Network, are implementing widely within the Network, or are technical organizations with regional experience. 

After hearing all presentations and discussing points raised as a group, the Committee identified the following action items to be completed before the next meeting:

• Develop a plan to provide French translation and transcription to facilitate Francophone participation;

• Identify how best to engage members and national commissions in the four phases;

• Define how to share experiences and best practices most efficiently across national commissions, including global and regional Knowledge Exchange meetings;

• Enhance WHO engagement and aim to provide input to WHO on development of the Implementation Roadmap for the Global Action Plan for NCDs 2013-2030;

• Initiate Advisory Group with initial members;

• Propose methodology for declaration of conflicts of interests by Network members; and

• Construct and present a more detailed Network organogram for Steering Committee review.

The Steering Committee will meet again in January 2022.