Monitoring and accountability for the Pacific response to the non-communicable diseases crisis.
Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are the leading cause of premature death and disability in the Pacific. In 2011, Pacific Forum Leaders declared "a human, social and economic crisis" due to the significant and growing burden of NCDs in the region. In 2013, Pacific Health Ministers' commitment to 'whole of government' strategy prompted calls for the development of a robust, sustainable, collaborative NCD monitoring and accountability system to track, review and propose remedial action to ensure progress towards the NCD goals and targets. The purpose of this paper is to describe a regional, collaborative framework for coordination, innovation and application of NCD monitoring activities at scale, and to show how they can strengthen accountability for action on NCDs in the Pacific. A key component is the Dashboard for NCD Action which aims to strengthen mutual accountability by demonstrating national and regional progress towards agreed NCD policies and actions.



The framework for the Pacific Monitoring Alliance for NCD Action (MANA) draws together core country-level components of NCD monitoring data (mortality, morbidity, risk factors, health system responses, environments, and policies) and identifies key cross-cutting issues for strengthening national and regional monitoring systems. These include: capacity building; a regional knowledge exchange hub; innovations (monitoring childhood obesity and food environments); and a robust regional accountability system. The MANA framework is governed by the Heads of Health and operationalised by a multi-agency technical Coordination Team. Alliance membership is voluntary and non-conditional, and aims to support the 22 Pacific Island countries and territories to improve the quality of NCD monitoring data across the region. In establishing a common vision for NCD monitoring, the framework combines data collected under the WHO Global Framework for NCDs with a set of action-orientated indicators captured in a NCD Dashboard for Action. Viewing NCD monitoring as a multi-component system and providing a robust, transparent mutual accountability mechanism helps align agendas, roles and responsibilities of countries and support organisations. The dashboard provides a succinct communication tool for reporting progress on implementation of agreed policies and actions and its flexible methodology can be easily expanded, or adapted for other regions.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand.
Hilary
H
Tolley
World Health Organisation, Western Pacific Regional Office, Suva, Fiji.
Wendy
W
Snowdon
Pacific Research Centre for the Prevention of Obesity and Non-Communicable Diseases (C-POND), Fiji National University, Suva, Fiji.
Jillian
J
Wate
Pacific Islands Health Officers Association, Honolulu, HI, USA.
A Mark
AM
Durand
Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia.
Paula
P
Vivili
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand.
Judith
J
McCool
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA.
Rachel
R
Novotny
School of Population Health & Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Ofa
O
Dewes
Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia.
Damian
D
Hoy
School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
Colin
C
Bell
School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Nicola
N
Richards
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand. boyd.swinburn@auckland.ac.nz.
Boyd
B
Swinburn
D057191:Capacity Building; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D061213:Mortality, Premature / Q000639:trends; D010139:Pacific Islands / Q000453:epidemiology; D062486:Public Health Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012941:Social Responsibility
Dashboard; Monitoring and accountability; Non communicable diseases; Pacific; Policy