High time to deliver on Non-Communicable Diseases!
Despite all evidence-based solutions and commitments to combat Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD's) progress has been slow and uneven globally. Last summer, the World Health Organization’s Independent High-level Commission on NCDs released the report Time to Deliver.
The WHO pledge forcefully argues that there is no time to wait; we need to do much better to act on the time-bound SDG promise to reduce, by one third, premature mortality from NCD’s. It also spells out the urgency in preventing the “untold suffering caused by NCDs and mental health across the lifespan, especially the impact on children and young people”.
In cities around the world, poor air quality, easy access to unhealthy food and restrained freedom of movement put children at increased risk of developing diabetes, chronic respiratory illness, obesity and depression.
At Uppsala Health Summit 2019, 8-9 October, Healthy Urban Childhoods we will do our part with a focus on implementation and “how to”.
In response to the call from WHO, we will bring together researchers, NGO’s, industry representatives and practitioners and policy makers from the private sector to explore multi-sectoral ways to improve urban planning so that children’s health outcomes - both physically and mentally - are considered when cities are planned and maintained. We will discuss how communities can work with the principle of health-in-all-policies to reduce childhood obesity in so called ECHO-Zones (Ending Childhood Obesity Zones); we will explore how to improve our knowledge about health-inequalities among children in cities, and how to build multi-stakeholder partnerships to improve access to physical activity that promotes brain health.
Would you like to be part of the discussion, or know someone else who should? Register your interest in a seat at the summit, and Save the Date here.