Where we go from here

The world must prioritize NCDs in order to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. Through our extensive survey of health professionals, we learned that NCDs are best tackled at the community and primary care level, but primary health care systems, particularly in LMICs, are not sufficiently equipped to address NCDs. Strong primary care is one of the essential components of universal health coverage and can repel dramatic increases in NCDs around the globe. To build the necessary primary care capacity, we need effective government policies, which 90 percent of our respondents found inadequate, and sustainable investments from multiple sources, including governments, international donors, and the private sector.

Across the spectrum of disease management, health professionals contend that NCD treatment attracts disproportionate attention, while more can and should be done to improve prevention and diagnosis. According to our survey, we must prioritize education and awareness about NCDs and strengthen detection and diagnosis capacity in health systems. But NCD diagnosis must also be integrated with treatment. Expanding diagnosis capabilities without plans to increase access to treatment facilities and regimens will result in major bottlenecks. For example, establishing countrywide cancer screening programs without the capacity to treat patients would be counterproductive. At the same time, investing in treatment without making early detection and diagnosis available incites inequity and renders the promise of universal health coverage an empty one.

“That inability to diagnose early enough or well enough basically means that you end up spending more, treating more, and having a more complicated case. But diagnosis is also more than just diagnosing it that one time. It also means the capacity to monitor and keep on tracking whether the treatment is actually working. So access to diagnostics and monitoring early treatments are both important.”

— Eduardo Banzon, Principal Health
Specialist Sustainable Development
and Climate Change Department

Asian Development Bank

The NCD problem is simply too big for any one sector to solve. To bridge the gaps in NCD care and management, public and private collaboration is key. Governments around the world must step up to the challenge by designing and implementing the right policies and solutions. The private sector, meanwhile, has an important role to play in committing resources, contributing innovations, and working in partnership with government and civil society at global, national and subnational levels, including offering the early detection and diagnostic technology and tools suitable to confront different NCDs in various contexts. Only through this multi-stakeholder approach will the world construct strong links for effective NCD management.

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