The NCDI Poverty Network was honored to be one of 18 organizations to receive 2022 UN Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs and WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care awards. Award winners in three categories – ministries of health, ministries beyond health, and non-state actors – were announced on 21 September 2022 during the annual meeting of the Friends of the Task Force, which took place during the UN General Assembly.

Over 60 global health policy makers, political leaders, care providers, and people living with NCDs gathered at UNICEF House in New York on September 15, 2022, to introduce a major international initiative to address the global burden of severe NCDs by rapidly scaling up implementation of PEN-Plus – a proven strategy for delivering integrated chronic care services for type 1 diabetes (T1D), sickle cell disease (SCD), and rheumatic and congenital heart diseases (RHD/CHD) at first-level hospitals in poor, rural areas of low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs).

More than 60 clinical experts, civil society members, people living with sickle cell disease (SCD), and NCD advocates from around the world came together on 25 August 2022 to discuss the burden and barriers of accessing care delivery for SCD in rural areas. Participants discussed the potential of the PEN-Plus model as a solution to provide equitable access to integrated chronic care services for SCD and other severe NCDs in poor, rural areas.