The WHO Regional Office for Africa has worked with Member States and partners to strengthen the prevention and management of NCDs, mental, neurologic, and substance use disorders to achieve the Sustainable development goal (SDG) target 3.4: Reduce premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030.
To do this, the WHO Regional Office for Africa has taken leadership in coordination, partnership, and resource mobilization; contributed to the generation of strategic information and knowledge products; developed technical products, services, and tools; and facilitated country support through technical assistance and capacity strengthening.
Based on the Brazzaville declaration on NCD prevention and control in the WHO African Region in 2011, priority areas of NCDs in the WHO African Region include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, hemoglobinopathies (sickle cell diseases), mental disorders, oral diseases, eye and ear disorders, in addition to violence and injuries.
In recent years, the WHO Regional Office for Africa has developed various regional NCD strategies, including:
- Framework for implementing the Global Alcohol Action Plan, 2022–2030 in the WHO African Region (2023)
- PEN-PLUS – A regional strategy to address severe noncommunicable diseases at first-level referral health facilities (2022)
- Framework to strengthen the implementation of the comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030 in the WHO African Region (2022)
- Regional framework for integrating essential noncommunicable disease services in primary health care (2017)
- Regional Oral Health Strategy 2016–2025: Addressing oral diseases as part of noncommunicable diseases (2016)