Every year the Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization meets to discuss general health policies for the region of the Americas. In September, CLAS, with the support of the NCD Alliance, held an event prior to the Council meeting and participated in its 59th Session with two interventions.

On September 14, CLAS organized a webinar with the aim of highlighting the importance of prioritizing NCDs, raising the voices of people living with NCDs and connecting NCDs to Universal Health Coverage. The event had the participation of more than 95 people from the region, including Dr. Ileana Vargas, Vice Minister of Health of Costa Rica; representatives of PAHO, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator and representatives of civil society organizations and people living with NCDs in the Americas.

In line with the event and with the objective of raising the region’s concerns regarding the prevention and control of NCDs, CLAS, together with the World Heart Federation and NCD Alliance, made two interventions before the PAHO Directing Council on digital transformation of the health sector and on the strategy for establishing resilient health systems in the post-COVID-19 recovery.

The declaration on digital transformation celebrated WHO’s leadership in the field of digital health and the Global Digital Health Strategy and roadmap, both timely and necessary, and committed to working with PAHO and Member States to build and engage with the evidence base on digital health, sharing best practices to better manage circulatory health and NCDs using digital health tools, and identifying and elevating champions from countries in the Americas.

The second declaration related to resilient health systems called on Member States of the Region of the Americas to:

• Prioritize the care, detection and treatment of circulatory conditions and other NCDs in national response and recovery plans for the COVID-19 emergency, with people at the center;

• Increase national resource allocation and develop targeted policies to address CVD and NCD risk factors, including commercial determinants of health, through financing mechanisms such as taxes on unhealthy products (tobacco, alcohol, sugary drinks, and junk food);

• Integrate monitoring and data collection of NCD prevalence, comorbidities and risk factors into pandemic preparedness, resilience and response measures; and

• Strengthen primary health care to ensure equitable and integrated access to essential health services, particularly for people living with NCDs and in low-resource settings.