NCD Child recently presented a new report entitled ‘Learning From NCD Child Advocacy Workshops and Projects: Building Future Policy Opportunities For Health And Education‘.
In 2015, NCD Child launched a series of regional advocacy training workshops—Protecting Children from NCDs: Leadership Advocacy Training. As an outgrowth of the workshops, NCD Child awarded 24 small grants for specific advocacy projects in 20 countries in five regions. The grants were designed to support in each country the creation of multi-sector teams of clinicians, government officials, civil society organizations, youth leaders, and other stakeholders to advocate for a response to one or more NCDs of major importance for children and adolescents. A comprehensive report on the advocacy workshops and small grant projects is available on the NCD Child website.
This report focuses on the future, drawing on experiences from past NCD Child workshops and small grants. It explores the potential for increased collaboration between the health and education sectors, as key drivers of the response to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), to build a framework for future policy advocacy to address NCDs in children, adolescents, and young people.
First, the report briefly reviews the global policy response to the key NCDs and outlines the relationship between NCDs, human rights, and SDGs. Second, it describes the critical roles of schools, families, and communities; youth; and other key stakeholders in responding to NCDs in children, adolescents, and young people. Third, it explores the workshops and small grants, with an overview of the roles of schools and universities, of youth, and of other key stakeholders in the small grant projects, as well as an analysis of the key findings and lessons learned. Finally, the report outlines a possible framework for policy advocacy to reinforce the role of health in moving forward on SDGs related to education, inclusion, and equity.
Key findings relate to the role of local champions, the need for policy change to take successful work to scale, and the potential for innovative leadership by youth.
English A, Farmer M, Patel K. Learning from NCD Child Advocacy Workshops and Projects: Building Future Policy Opportunities for Health and Education. NCD Child, 2020. www.ncdchild.org.
