The Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, has organized an international conference focusing on the implementation of the UN Political Declaration on Noncommunicable Diseases in the Region. Representatives from ministries of health, foreign affairs and planning, the League of Arab States, United Nations funding agencies, programmes and agencies, international financial institutions, development banks and other key international organizations had attended. 

The aims of the conference were to:

• review and adopt a set of monitoring indicators for noncommunicable disease surveillance systems
• share strategies, tools  and cost-effective interventions that countries in the Region may have implemented in relation to surveillance, prevention and improved health care for noncommunicable diseases
• articulate a road map for capacity-building for the Region based on a review of current regional and national capacities
• discuss and adopt a research agenda concerning noncommunicable disease priority areas in the Region.

The outcome of the conference was the Riyadh Declaration in (Arabic and English) .

This conference represented a unique opportunity for governments and nongovernmental stakeholders in the Region to reassess their commitment to multisectoral action on the following issues.

• Exerting strong, sustained political leadership to set national targets and indicators for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
• Scaling up essential access to noncommunicable diseases treatment and care in the Region.
• Involving all sectors, including civil society and the private sector in prevention and control activities.
• Positioning noncommunicable diseases as central to development and their control at the centre of efforts to promote economic growth.
• Strengthening regional cooperation to promote an enabling environment, to facilitate healthy lifestyles and choices, and to strengthen national capacities for all aspects related to the prevention and control of these diseases.

Related links

 The Riyadh Declaration: International Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Diseases in The Arab World and the Middle East, September 12, 2012 [pdf 318 Kb]

The Political Declaration of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases:commitments of Member States and the way forward-Resolution EM/RC59 on NCD [pdf 93.3 Kb]    

Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases. Outcomes of the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the First Global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Disease Control, 20 April 2012 [pdf 199.33kb] 

Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases