WHO SIDS technical meeting and ministerial conference concept note

Barbados is co-hosting a Ministerial conference of SIDS on the prevention and control of NCDs and mental health in June 2023. This represents a critical step towards building and pursuing a collective vision and course of action for accelerating progress towards SDG target 3.4 on NCDs and mental health and SDG target 3.8 on universal health coverage (UHC) in preparation for the second High-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Universal Health Coverage in 2023 and the 4th high-level meeting on NCDs in 2025.

The ministerial conference in 2023 will be organized in response to paragraph 75(e) of resolution A/RES/69/15 (SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action [SAMOA] Pathway), which includes a commitment to “enable cooperation among Small Island Developing States (SIDS) on diseases by using existing international and regional forums to convene joint biennial meetings of ministers of health and other relevant sectors to respond in particular to NCDs”.