Country Capacity and Accomplishments and Application of the Policy Options Framework

Key Messages

* South Asian countries are generally putting a low level of effort in surveillance and NCD burden

assessments, and no country is reviewing the evidence base.

* Some countries have NCD units and national overarching policies, but only Maldives has explicit national targets.

* Some countries have NCD policies and measures in place but often their implementation has

been slow or stalled. Anti-tobacco activity is evident in all countries although the amount of

effort and policies are highly variable. Clinical quality, regulatory issues, human resource

planning, and financing have received little attention.

* Few gains have been made with impact-evaluation efforts.