In 2011 President Jacob Zuma and the South African government committed to NCDs prevention and control in line with global conventions. Since then many more commitments have been undertaken. As part of civil society’s watchdog role the SA NCD Alliance monitors how the government is doing. Today we release our report card covering the years from 2010 to March 2015. Click here to download the report.
March 2005 marks halfway through the national NCDs plan. There is still a lot to be done.
SA is doing fairly well at “population”
measures to prevent NCDs like legislation on smoking, salt reduction and food labeling. The relatively cost effective measures mean a bigger bang for each rand spent. We are all for that. However, there is much more to NCDs prevention and treatment (control.)
There are 6 main areas in the WHO’s NCDs Global Action Plan 2013-2020 are used to benchmark the governments progress. Out of over 25 indicators (see table below):
♦ Less than 1/4 were met:
♦ At least 3/25 critical items were not achieved; and
♦ the bulk (64%) were partially achieved or implemented.
This report was compiled by using official government reports, budgets and transparent interaction with stakeholders. It is a first of its kind in South Africa. Over 600 data sources were used. The Parliamentary Monitoring Group was the major source of government meetings.
None of this is a surprised to the National Department of Health because a year ago, armed with the preliminary findings, a NCDs Network delegation discussed our concerns with the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla. Sadly not much has changed since then.
Issues of concern include:
♦ A continuing and alarming trend to make policy and plans without any budgetary allocation;
♦ Minuscule budgetary allocation for NCDs within the Primary Health Care programme budget;
♦ Lack of provincial NCDs plans and budgets – the provinces provided the care but can’t do it without dedicated resources;
♦ Failure to include people living with NCDs in the roll out of “ideal clinics” (also known as Operation Phakisa and “integrated chronic care model”);
♦ Lack of patient-centredness including consultation with patients and those living with the illnesses (nothing for us, without us);
♦ Poor or non-existent monitoring and evaluation.
There is more but we would like you to take look. You be the judge, you use the services.
Below see the 6 areas of the WHO Global Action Plan. Green indicates achievement. Red no progress. Blue no evidence. All the rest partial progress/ implementation.
