Morocco – PDGN Vice-president Mustafa Brahimi MP reports that the Moroccan Diabetes Fighting League is organising the 8th National Symposium on Diabetes and Nutrition, Diabetes Morocco 2019 at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra, on July 5th and 6th. 2019. The event will be organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Moroccan Society of Endocrinology Diabetology and Nutrition, the Moroccan Society of Nutrition, Health and Environment, WHO, and several other organisations. The Congress program will focus on Diabetes and Nutrition with Mustafa making a presentation on the successful campaign to introduce a soda tax in Morocco and the prospects for the fight against toxic products sugar, salt and fat.
New Zealand – The Pharmaceutical Management Agency, better known as Pharmac, is a New Zealand Government agency that decides, on behalf of District Health Boards, which medicines and pharmaceutical products are subsidised for use in the community and public hospitals. Pharmac was created in 1993 as a response to the ever-increasing costs of pharmaceuticals. The agency’s primary aim is “to secure for eligible people in need of pharmaceuticals, the best health outcomes that are reasonably achievable from pharmaceutical treatment and from within the amount of funding provided. It is coming under criticism by medical professionals with one Endocrinologist quoted as suggesting New Zealand’s type 2 diabetes drugs are ‘third world’. This article asks the question why Pharmac won’t fund the medicines experts want?
Advocacy Action: Are there reasons other than cost for why patients are not getting the treatments and medicines they should in your country? Can you persuade your media to investigate, or call for evidence via your scrutiny system?
USA – In a great example of cross the aisle working through an allparty group, US lawmakers Reps. Tom Reed (R-NY) and Diana DeGette (DCO) the co-chairs of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, have introduced bipartisan legislation to continue funding a key federal diabetes research program for an additional five years, and increase its annual funding from $150 million to $200 The group has effectively increased research funding by $250 million over the next 5 years.
Advocacy Action: Get a cross party group together and make a real difference. PDGN can help you set one up and help it grow.
USA action on behalf of South Asian Population – More cross-party action from the States, this time on behalf of those from a South Asian ethnicity in the country. Working together a Democrat and a Republican have secured a Bill that will fund research and analysis to identify solutions to preventable circumstances in order to save lives. The figures identified in the US may be similar in other countries.
There’s already evidence to back up the concerns of Democrat Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Republican Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) reported here:
Advocacy Action: Has any similar research been undertaken in your country? Can it be used to shape policy in the future? Can you work with others to prompt such research being conducted?