Strengthening communication, research and advocacy in East Africa

Project period:

15.03.2019 - 15.01.2020

Granted amount:

499,670,- DKK

Organization:

Kræftens Bekæmpelse

Partners:

NCD Alliance East Africa (EANCDA)

Pool:

Civilsamfundspuljen

Grant type:

Medborgerindsats

World goals:

Goal 1: No Poverty

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being

Goal 4: Quality Education

Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Efforts take place in:

Burundi Kenya Rwanda Tanzania Uganda

Overall targets

By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from NCDs through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.

Immediate targets

By December 2019 East Africa NCD Alliance has 1. Well-functioning internal and external communication platforms 2. Established a research forum with East African Universities and research institutes and initiated a collaborative research project on NCDs 3. Improved the focus on the NCD agenda amongst key stakeholders within the East Africa Community (EAC) and started work on a EAC regional guidance document on NCDs

Target groups

The target groups are categorized according to the objectives and their focus. Communication platform Primary target groups (when developed fully – in a future program modality): • NCD Policy makers across East Africa, especially NCD interested members of parliament, MoH staff, EAC, WHO country offices and beyond. They can find the information (ammunition) needed to advocate for urgent response for the prevention and control of NCDs. • Media: targeted to ensure they have updated information to inform the public and contribute to increase government response. • General public: targeted with information to create awareness on NCD prevention and control and counter stigmatization of patients. • All EANCDA staff, board members and volunteer. Secondary target groups: • 10 PLWNCDs which are diversified to represent different genders, ethnicities and diseases: these will benefit indirectly because their life stories and personal experiences will form a key part of the content shared on the platform by Project Managers and other advocates to illustrate how NCDs affect people at a personal level. • Other NCD advocates and NCD-related civil society organisations including researchers, Research Forums etc: these will also benefit because it will be open for all actors to share their work, awareness and advocacy information. The platform will include actively identifying good and current NCD related research and information and share links with short summaries. Research forum: Primary target groups: • Universities in East Africa especially health science departments with interest in NCD work. • University of Aarhus - Department of Public Health • Other interested overseas universities and research institutions such as African Population and Health Centre, Yale University and University of Southern California whose academia/researchers have previously collaborated with EANCDA. • Academia and other research interest individual members of the EANCD Alliances Secondary target groups: • Members of parliaments and MoH employees with an interest in NCD research. Improved focus on the NCD agenda at EAC Primary target groups: • Members of the EAC Health Department and other key technical departments • National level Technical officers that collaborate with EAC on health eg at Ministries of Health and regional cooperation. Secondary target groups: • WHO Country Offices and the Africa Office • Other regional CSO involved in health advocacy at EAC to collaborate and generate synergy

Resume

This application is meant to make the NCD challenges a political priority within the East African Community. Through close cooperation with initially civil servants at the EAC a guidance document outlining ways to tackling the growing NCD burden in East Africa will be formulated. In addition, we aim at NCDs becoming a separate agenda item at the next Health Technical Working Group meeting. Furthermore, the project will establish more formal working relationships between the East African NCD Alliances and universities in the region and DK - to improve our evidence based advocacy both now and in the future. Finally yet importantly the project is to improve our communication platform to ensure better both internal and external communication.