This regional report provides the results of the 2019 noncommunicable disease (NCD) country capacity survey in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. It offers an overview of the current capacities of the countries of the Region to prevent and control NCDs particularly in regard to the four key areas of: governance; prevention and reduction of risk factors; surveillance; monitoring and evaluation; and health care. The report aims to inform the work of decision-makers in ministries of health and other sectors related to health as well as NCD managers physicians clinicians researchers the media and others.

"Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, and their key risk factors--tobacco, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity--remain the leading causes of death globally. NCDs are currently responsible for almost 70% of global deaths, the majority occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In recent years NCDs have been increasingly in the spotlight of the global public health community and national leaders. Most recently, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, adopted at the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2015, recognized the critical public health importance of addressing NCDs, and included a goal to reduce, by one third, the premature mortality from NCDs, along with targets to address risk factors such as alcohol and tobacco, and achievement of universal health coverage by 2030. Achieving targets for NCD prevention and control require a renewed and concerted action at the national level. Key to this is capacity: physical, human and at the policy level. To assess the capacity of countries to respond to NCDs, WHO carries out periodic global country capacity surveys. The first of these was conducted in 2001. Subsequent surveys, intended to assess progress, were conducted in 2005, 2010, and 2013. The fifth, and most recent, survey was conducted in early 2015. In the 2015 survey, countries were asked to provide detailed information on their capacity to address NCDs, and to determine current strengths and weaknesses in terms of their NCD infrastructure, policy response, surveillance and health-systems response. Comparisons with results from previous surveys will help to determine if overall global progress is being made."--Page 10.

Sixth edition of the hugely successful, internationally recognised textbook on global public health and epidemiology, with 3 volumes comprehensively covering the scope, methods, and practice of the discipline