The Wellbeing Initiative Represented At Global NCDs Forum on Children and Youth
The Wellbeing Initiative, an IOGT International member organization from Nigeria, was represented at the Global NCDs Forum on Children and Youth held on March 25 and 26, 2019, in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
The event was directed at young NCDs prevention advocates and people living with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their caregivers, with the goal of advancing the narrative around the critical role of family- and community-based interventions as catalysts for a sustained approach into the continuum of care for NCDs. All in all, 100 passionate advocates and professionals from 24 countries from around the globe came together. The WellBeing Initiative was represented by the President and Convener of the organization, Mr Toyyib Oladimeji AbdulKareem and the Director of Strategy and Advocacy, Dr Fatimah Odusote.
Toyyib writes:
Our participation was to leverage our understanding of the Nigerian context and similar communities to contribute to the global initiative. We also engaged with other attendees on forming partnerships and sharing best practices for localization.
Our contribution during the forum also included a contribution to the plenary session on revisiting the definition of early mortality to include 0 to 29 years. Our point is to develop research so as to get enough data on the priority need for an inclusive early mortality definition.
There were also discussions on risk factors, alcohol inclusive. A key conclusion is to protect the young generation from the harms of the big industries and other determinants.”
Four key take-aways for our members, Toyibb and Fatimah of The Wellbeing Initiative:
- Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a family matter. It affects everyone and can be the difference in growth and development.
- In addressing NCDs, data matters but we have to create room to get data that don’t exist yet. This includes getting information on mortality between 0 and 29 years which will set the tone in redefining premature mortality.
- Universal Health Coverage is a multisystem approach that makes health the right of everyone everywhere at every time.
- We cannot talk about adolescent and youth health without getting them involved. Hence, there is a serious need to build the capacity of adolescents and young people as future health advocates and leaders and also an urgent call to start including them in program planning and policy formulation that affect their health.
Contribution to the forum, its final declaration, and follow-up
Toyyib also spoke in a panel and together both contributed actively to the drafting of the forum declaration. It can be found here.
As an aftermath of the forum, Toyyib will join a 5 member committee that is developing an NCD Youth Advocacy Curriculum to be used for global engagements.