Regional multistakeholder dialogue in the South East Asia and Western Pacific Region - Report

The NCD Alliance joint regional multi-stakeholder dialogue in the South-East Asia and the Western Pacific region was part of a series of regional dialogues held by the NCD Alliance. The dialogues were held in the Pan America, Africa, South-East Asia, Western Pacific and Eastern Meditterranean regions along with the Our Views Our Voices regional meetings with civil society, which will contribute to the Global Charter on Meaningful Involvement of People Living with NCDs.

The Global Charter seeks to provide a shared understanding of meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs, including key principles, barriers and strategies for its implementation. This will contribute to a growing knowledge-base on meaningful involvement and its impact, and will increase commitment to embed meaningful involvement in organisational practices in all sectors of society. It will also provide an accountability process with periodic reporting for organisations that choose to endorse the Charter, on actions undertaken, challenges faced and lessons learned.

The regional multi-stakeholder dialogue in South-East Asia and the Western Pacific region was held on 16 June, thanks to the support of Access Accelerated and Takeda, and gathered almost a hundred participants and panellists.

Panellists included Datuk Dr. Noor Azmi Ghazali, Deputy Minister of Health of Malaysia; Dr. Mario Villaverde, Undersecretary of Health of the Philippines; Ms. Michelle Erwee, Global Head of Access to Medicines from Takeda; and Dr. Palitha Abeykoon, Senior Advisor of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health and WHO Director-General’s Special Envoy on COVID-19 Preparedness and Response. The dialogue also had the participation of directors and board members of the South-East Asia NCD Alliance, representatives from APCAT Media (Asia Pacific Media Network to end TB & tobacco and prevent NCDs), NCD Child of New Zealand, the National Cancer Society of Malaysia, the UNICEF Young Health Programme (YHP), PATH Vietnam, the George Institute for Global Health India, the Philippine Association of Patient Organisations, and the Fred Hollows Foundation.