The WHO's High-Level Commission on NCDs, which published its Final Report in December 2019, has approved Recommendation Six for a Platform within WHO designed to facilitate partnerships between the public and private sectors to move forward on NCD solutions. (Note that the Platform does not explicitly limit its scope to PPPs, but to all types of partnership.) The Platform is a flexible structure which will allow participants to construct solutions within a productive, supportive environment. Using evidence-based case studies and well-developed frameworks, the Platform would build trust among stakeholders (including within WHO), facilitate exchanges of information, provide a repository of essential frameworks, skills, and evidence-based case studies, and enable sustainable engagement of the private sector in NCD solutions. The Platform could also provide guidance on the management of conflicts of interest and the navigation of legal, regulatory, and contractual matters.
Of course, the healthcare landscape has changed dramatically since December 2019. With Covid-19 demanding a significant percentage of healthcare budgets and attention spans, NCDs are no longer any country's top priority-and rightly so. As such, the Platform remains under development. However, as the pandemic subsides and countries look to the future, addressing NCDs will be as essential as ever, if not moreso. The significant comorbidities between NCDs and Covid-19 require a holistic approach to the future of healthcare. And if addressing NCDs was a significant challenge in its own right before the pandemic, it is now also a key element of pandemic preparedness.