The Danish Government and Novo Nordisk are announcing grants of 3 and 5 million US dollars respectively to the newly established Defeat-NCD Partnership during a launch event at the UN General Assembly.
These are the first grants made to the partnership that aims to initially raise 100 million dollars to fund the mobilisation of knowledge, tools, capacities and finances to scale-up action to defeat NCDs in low-resource countries.
Four tracks of action
Through four tracks of action the Partnership will contribute to building national capacity, scaling up community health services, expanding availability of affordable essential medicines and securing financing to achieve universal health coverage for NCDs.
“We believe that this Partnership has high potential to address the increasing burden connected with diabetes and hypertension in low-resource countries in a new and innovative way. If we are to fulfil the promises of the Sustainable Development Goals we must engage with new partners and move out of the comfort zone of the usual development engagements,” says Ulla Tørnæs, Minister for Development Cooperation, Denmark.
“From experience, we know that the inefficient procurement and supply chains in many low-resource countries are critical barriers between life-saving medicines and the people who need them most. We hope that this Partnership can simplify processes around the tender bidding and ensure efficient supply of low-cost human insulin,” says Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk.
The next step
The next step for the Partnership is to expand the number of partners to accelerate progress within the four tracks at national level in low-resource countries.
About the Defeat-NCD Partnership
The mission of the Defeat-NCD Partnership is to enable and assist all low-resource countries to scale-up action on NCDs. NCDs threaten progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which has a specific target (SDG 3.4) of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by one-third by 2030.
The partnership will initially focus on diabetes and hypertension – conditions that are closely related and that contribute to the burden of premature death and disability caused by NCDs.2,3 Subsequently, the Partnership will address other NCDs of major prevalence and impact such as certain cancers and lung conditions.
The Defeat-NCD Partnership was established in January 2018 to help tackle the most significant global health challenge of the century – NCDs. The public-private partnership is hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and includes governments, multilateral agencies, civil society, academia, philanthropic foundations and the private sector.
Photo of Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk
