IAEA’s LATAM Division collects UN Award for non-communicable disease prevention and control efforts

29-Oct-2019 - Last updated on 29-Oct-2019 at 20:18 GMT

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arm for Latin America and the Caribbean receives the United Nations Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs (UNIATF) award.

Luis Longoria Gandara, Director of the Division, IAEA, accepted the United Nations Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs (UNIATF) award from Nick Banatvala, Senior Advisor on Non-Communicable Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO).

Award-winning nutrition commitment

The award was presented during the UNIATF 'Friends of the Task Force' event at the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage. IAEA Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean was given the accolade of Outstanding United Nations Country Team.

Recognizing the dedicated efforts of the IAEA’s Division for Latin America and the Caribbean on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), IAEA was identified for its contribution to tackle and overcome cancer, obesity and other NCDs in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Since 2018, the IAEA’s technical cooperation program in Latin America and the Caribbean has pledged its support to more than 20 health-related national and regional projects. A total of 30 Member States are participating in these national and regional programs.

“A major component of our technical cooperation program focuses on addressing the provision of quality and safe services in diagnostic radiology, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy across the region,” said Luis Longoria Gandara, Director of the Division, IAEA.

Technologies, laboratories and illness identification

The technical cooperation program has centered on nutrition. The group of initiatives center on facilitating technology transfers by exploring and establishing the use of stable isotopes for nutrition studies, and bolstering national laboratories’ capacities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nutritionally, the program focuses on the Latin American and the Caribbean population from childhood through to elder years. The aim of these dedicated efforts is to create and understand body composition reference curves for 6 to 24-month-old infants in 15 countries.

Efforts are also directed at improving the ability to recognize the condition sarcopenia in older people in the region. Sarcopenia is a degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass that is typically linked to the aging process.

“The Regional Cooperation Agreement for the Promotion of Nuclear Science and Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ARCAL, has identified and prioritized six areas for intervention in human health and nutrition, which now informs our joint efforts to fight cancer and other NCDs,” explained Longoria Gandara.

Health system training

As of 2019, a total of seven regional training courses are currently underway to help over 170 radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, medical physicists and nurses from 20 countries. The training courses and their associated activities have been set up to harness multidisciplinary teams for the integrated management of cancers.

Along with the UNIATF, IAEA’s technical cooperation program in Latin America and the Caribbean has also been praised for its community’s fight against NCDs at the 10th UN-CARICOM General Meeting.

At the 73rd UN General Assembly, the General Resolution 347 stated that “the meeting took note that the International Atomic Energy Agency was making key contributions to the health system development⁠”.

Developing legal support

Additionally, the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly: Friends of the UN Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs, centered on the legal support that is recommended to help prevent and control NCDs.

Commenting on the approach required to implement and advocate international laws, Irene Khan, Director-General, IDLO stated: “We recognize that governments have a crucial role to play in addressing NCDs, but we know that governments alone cannot influence people to make healthy choices and avoid harmful products. Other stakeholders, including civil society, academia, and the private sector should also be engaged.”

“As part of our initiative on NCDs, we are reaching out to civil society organizations in multiple ways, as equal partners, in roundtable dialogues with governments, as community educators and as advocates for under-represented parts of the population affected by NCDs such as women, youth and marginalized groups,” added Khan.