This youth-focused guiding framework for combating physical inactivity and unhealthy diets aims to support Commonwealth member countries' efforts to address the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) through the design and implementation of effective interventions.
NCDs are collectively responsible for the deaths of 41 million people per year, accounting for 74 per cent of deaths worldwide. Within the Commonwealth, around 10 million citizens die because of lifestyle-related illnesses, with cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancer accounting for more than 7 million fatalities. This has a profound impact on economic prosperity and is a major threat to sustainable development.
In 2022, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held in Kigali, Rwanda, it was agreed that a more strategic approach was needed to address the rising burden of NCDs, involving multisectoral co-ordinated action to reduce this burden across the Commonwealth. This Guiding Framework is therefore an output following the CHOGM agreement, with the goal of supporting Commonwealth member countries in their efforts to address the rising burden of NCDs through designing and implementing more effective interventions to reduce unhealthy diets and physical inactivity in Commonwealth countries. With youth representing a significant proportion of the Commonwealth’s population, the Guiding Framework will focus on working with and for young people, ensuring that they play a key role in addressing the burden of NCDs in the Commonwealth.
This publication presents a condensed version of the NCD Guiding Framework that provides an overview of its goal, scope, audience and objectives, and details the workstreams in which member countries, the Commonwealth and its partners will engage.