The United Nations Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) visited Zambia from 5-9 December to support the African country’s efforts to tackle noncommunicable diseases and road traffic injuries.
Ten UN system agencies participated in the joint programming mission1. This was the first time that road traffic injuries were included in a UN NCD Task Force country mission since ECOSOC widened the Task Force’s scope of work to include all NCD-related SDGs.Road traffic injuries and their associated impacts constitute an important health and development challenge in Zambia.
Road crashes are the third leading cause of death in Zambia after malaria and HIV/AIDS, accounting for 2000 deaths per year, with