PLoS Medicine
(Accessed 11 September 2011)
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/browse.action?field=date

Informing the 2011 UN Session on Noncommunicable Diseases: Applying Lessons from the AIDS Response
Peter Lamptey, Michael Merson, Peter Piot, K. Srinath Reddy, Rebecca Dirks Policy Forum, published 06 Sep 2011
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001086

Summary Points
– The September 2011 UN High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases provides an opportunity for the international community and national stakeholders to raise awareness and launch an effective global response to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

– Valuable policy lessons have been learned in the control of AIDS that can help inform the global dialogue when designing a NCD response in developing countries.

– The AIDS response demonstrates successes in advocacy and resource mobilization, priority setting, coalition building, strong national and community leadership, strengthening of community health infrastructures, and health systems strengthening.

– Weaknesses of the AIDS response to avoid when building a NCD response include creation of stove-pipe vertical programs, ineffectiveness of prevention efforts, and inefficient and uncoordinated use of resources.

– The lessons learned in the global response to AIDS are relevant to the likely outcomes of the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs: (1) improvement in advocacy and recognition of the NCD burden, (2) greater attention in national planning and resource allocation, (3) a longer-term investment of donors, and (4) greater emphasis on strengthening health systems.