Democratic Republic of Congo NCDI Poverty Commission Holds Kick-Off Meeting

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) NCDI Poverty Commission convened for its first meeting in Kinshasa on 12 August 2021.

Dr. Dieudonné Muamba, Director General of the National Public Health Institute and Chair of the DRC NCDI Poverty Commission, officially opened the hybrid virtual and in-person event. Addressing 17 participants, he spoke on the importance of the Commission’s role in advancing integrated health service delivery solutions for NCDIs in the DRC.  

Following Dr. Muamba, the head of the NCD Division within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Gaston Tshapenda, presented on existing national NCD data and plans. Dr. Tshapenda drew attention to the urgent need to obtain a better understanding of the burden of disease throughout the DRC to develop a nationally-appropriate plan and response. Presently, the DRC lacks updated information on the burden of NCDIs and has not adopted a national NCD Strategic Plan.

To rectify this, the NCDI Poverty Commission team has already begun collecting the information necessary to estimate the burden of NCDIs in the DRC, with particular attention to assessing how a broad range of conditions differentially impact population groups based on socioeconomic status and age. Once a draft report is available, it will be presented to all Commission members.

The Commission also heard from Prof. Aimée Lulebo, Commission Coordinator and member of the NCDI Poverty Network Steering Committee. Prof. Lulebo provided an overview of the DRC Commission’s work, including the Terms of Reference and deliverables. Dr. Emmanuel Mensah of the NCDI Poverty Network Secretariat joined the meeting to provide an overview of the Network’s goals and the exciting ways in which the DRC team and other new commissions will contribute to larger regional efforts to bring NCDI care to the continent’s most vulnerable populations.