NCDA Global Platform faces opposition from COI coalition

Ahead of the World Health Assembly in May 2012, the Non Communicable Disease Alliance (NCDA) announced proposals to establish a Global Coordinating Platform on NCDs, led by Member States, UN agencies, civil society and the private sector, to facilitate a renewed multisectoral movement for NCDs.

The NCDA proposed that the Platform have the responsibility fully to develop a global plan for NCDs and bring together key sectors and partners, a move which was met with opposition from parts of the NGO community.

GAPA wrote to the NCDA expressing concerns about the role of the private sector, in particular the alcohol industry, in developing a strategy to combat NCDs. As members of the Conflict of Interest (COI) coalition, GAPA is explicitly opposed to alcohol industry involvement in the development of public health policy due to the inherent conflict of interest between economic objectives and public health goals.

Derek Rutherford, GAPA Chair, said: “GAPA sees numerous examples of the alcohol beverage industry trying to postpone, dilute or boycott proposals for evidence-based measures to protect public health. The NCDA itself has acknowledged the industry has been active behind the scene in trying to dilute the WHO process on NCD targets and indicators with regard to alcohol consumption.”

Several members of the COI Coalition joined GAPA in voicing their opposition to the proposed Platform. In the days leading up to the WHA, the NCDA added to the Platform proposal “clear guidelines that include an ethical framework and code of conduct to manage conflicts of interest and to firewall policy development”.

However, despite this amendment, concerns remain that the proposed Platform continues to undermine the main concerns of public interest NGOs, who are campaigning for clarity on the role of the private sector in public policy-making. A joint NGO positioning paper on partnerships for NCDs was published following the WHA, with signatories including The UK National Heart Forum, World Cancer Research Fund and GAPA. The paper calls for industry exclusion from policy development, strategy development, norms and standards setting. It also calls for the UN and WHO to clarify the definition of “partnerships”, making a clear distinction between participation-based interactions and joint decision making processes.

Mr Rutherford added: “The NCDA Platform can be seen as reinforcing blurred boundaries. We must continue to push for a clear distinction on the role of industry in policymaking – alcohol producers are not experts in public health, they are experts in selling drink. Inviting them to help develop a global plan for reducing non-communicable diseases legitimises their place at the policy table and risks putting commercial interests before public health.”

The public interest NGO positioning paper on partnerships for NCDs can be found on the GAPA website, www.globalgapa.org