Reinventing the wheel? The harmonization between the SDGs and the UN documents for non-communicable diseases risk factors

Tiago Gabriel Tasca,Roberta De Freitas Campos

doi:10.20889/m47e21013

Tiago Gabriel Tasca, Roberta De Freitas Campos

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.20889/m47e21013

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Abstract

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are one of the main challenges to the development and well-being of populations. Based on the documents issued by the United Nations system (FAO, ECOSOC, UNGA, and WHO), it is argued that the 2030 Agenda is partially harmonized with the recommendations of these organizations. This partial harmonization is explained through political coherence by illustrating explanatory vectors from 2005 to 2019 for products associated with NCDs risk factors: alcohol, pesticides, ultra-processed foods, and tobacco.

Highlights

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes, have been internationally recognized as global issues
Campos can be found in their inclusion in the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) highlevel meetings on NCDs prevention and control (2011, 2014, and 2018) and in the 2030 Agenda through specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets: “3.4 by 2030 reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment, and promote mental health and wellbeing;” “3.5 Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol” and “3
Several goals coupled the NCDs with the SDGs: 3.4; SDG 1; SDG 4; SDG 5 and 10, and SDG 12 about responsible consumption and production

Summary

Introduction

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes, have been internationally recognized as global issues. Since policy convergence has structural and procedural variables, our focus is on procedural variables because we are interested in the policy outcomes that emerged from policy inputs (i.e., the 2030 Agenda and the multilateral documents issued by the UN system) This alignment is only partial, with a remainder of many health policy-driven challenges. We follow a methodological path of descriptive inference that dovetails 44 documents issued by the UN system from 2005 to 2019 (FAO, ECOSOC, ONU Environment, WHO, and UNGA) based on the dataset of the International Observatory on Regulation of NCD Risk Factors (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil).

UN mechanisms to tackle NCDs

Harmonizing the NCDs strategies within the SGD agenda

Findings

Conclusion