The noncommunicable disease programme provides technical support to Member States of the Eastern Mediterranean Region to effectively implement the Global Strategy for Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control, endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2000. This strategy provided, for the first time, a clear global vision for addressing chronic noncommunicable diseases through surveillance, prevention and management. In 2010, a regional action plan for noncommunicable diseases was developed guided by the global action plan (2008–2013).

The objectives of the noncommunicable disease programme are to:

• raise the priority accorded to chronic/noncommunicable disease in development work at global and national levels, and to integrate prevention and control of such diseases into policies across all government departments
• establish and strengthen national policies and plans for the prevention and control of chronic/noncommunicable diseases;
• promote interventions to reduce the main shared modifiable risk factors for chronic/noncommunicable diseases: tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol
• promote research for the prevention and control of chronic/noncommunicable diseases
• promote partnerships for the prevention and control of chronic/noncommunicable diseases
• monitor chronic/noncommunicable diseases and their determinants and evaluate progress at the national, regional and global levels.