Our Values

The values that underpin our advocacy align with well-established principles of global health and sustainable development.
Human rights-based.

We will advance and protect the human and health rights of PLWNCDs+. We emphasise these human rights:

• • Equality – Section 9 – All persons are entitled to the right to health services without discrimination based on the type or cause of their health conditions.
  • Dignity -Section 10 – Some PLWNCDs+ are stigmatised or disapproved of due to their health condition. For example, people with epilepsy, mental health conditions, albinism and cancer.
  • Life – Section 11 – Failure to access essential medicines and treatments is life-threatening for PLWNCDs+. During COVID-19, access to medication due to the lack of alternatives available for the HIV public sector community (CCMDD). This crisis existed before COVID19. The failure to link screening for NCDs+ with accessible diagnosis and treatment is a hallmark of NCDs+ national policy.
  •  Environment – Section 24 (a) – A clean environment with clean air and water is essential for optimum community health. Air pollution is the significant environmental risk factor for NCDs+.
  • Health care, food, water and social security – Section 27 – Poor access to essential treatments and social services lead to poor disease outcomes for PLWNCDs+. South African NCDs+ Alliance complaint resubmission GP/2122/0026/BJ/K Page 5 of 9
  • Children – Section 28 – Children living with NCDs+ may be neglected in national NCDs+ discourses. For example, access to pain medication for children living with cancer and other NCDs+ is a long-neglected issue.
  • Access to information – Section 32 — We want information on how NCDs+ are funded and resourced in South Africa and access to the regular, public and evidence-based health information on NCDs+ prevention and control. For example, the amount of money spent on NCDs+ at a provincial and district level is undisclosed despite frequent requests. How has the NDoH spent the Health Promotion Levy since its inception?
  •  Just administrative action – Section 33 – PLWNCDs+ have a right to ask the government to transparently account for their inadequate response to NCDs+ prevention and control. For example, failure to include PLWNCDs+ timeously in policy development, failure to respond to requests for meetings and correspondence.
  • Integrated people-centred health services (IPCHS)
    We support the WHO framework of IPCHS, an approach to health services that meets the needs of PLWNCDs+ for individuals or populations. It includes a continuum of care from promotion, maintenance, and restoration of health throughout the life-course. In South Africa, this is an evolving concept but vital if we are to meet the universal health coverage (UHC) and SDG target 3.4. It means changing the siloes arising from the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) that focus primarily on communicable diseases.
  • Integrated health services: health services that are managed and delivered so that people receive a continuum of health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, disease-management, rehabilitation and palliative care services, coordinated across the different levels and sites of care within and beyond the health sector, and according to their needs throughout the life course
  • People-centred care: consciously adopts individuals’, carers’, families’ and communities’ perspectives as participants in, and beneficiaries of, trusted health systems organised around the comprehensive needs of people rather than individual diseases and respects social preferences.

PLWNCDs+ must have the education and support needed to make decisions and participate in their care. Carers must be able to attain maximal function within a supportive working environment. It is broader than patient and person-centred care, encompassing clinical encounters and including attention to the health of people in their communities and their crucial role in shaping health policy and health services.

Transparent and accountable

We will be transparent and accountable, as well as fiscally responsible and effectively governed, with a commitment to excellence in all of our work.

Independent

We will maintain our independence and manage real and perceived conflicts of interest.

Coproduction-driven

We will collaborate with current trusted members, allies and partners (MAP) and the broader NCDs+ and health community, including across sectors, to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and strategic alliances that support our goals.