The Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control (CCDPC) is responsible for providing strategic leadership in the development and implementation of integrated policies and programs for the prevention and control of chronic non communicable diseases in Canada, working with relevant stakeholders at national and international levels. The CCDPC includes a Policy Office and four Divisions, namely: Chronic Disease Prevention; Chronic Disease Management and Control; Evidence and Information for Chronic Disease Policy; and Surveillance and Risk Assessment. CCDPC is a member of the WHO-Countrywide Integrated Non Communicable Disease Intervention (CINDI) and its relevant counterpart in the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), CARMEN (Conjunto de Acciones para Reduccion Multifactorial de Enfermedades No Transmisibles), the equivalent of CINDI in the Amercia's. The WHO CINDI/CARMEN program is based on demonstration sites and provides a mechanism to develop common monitoring, surveillance and evaluation systems which facilitate the sharing of lessons learnt on effective non communicable interventions among countries. In the past, The Canadian Heart Health Initiative has been the backbone of the CINDI program in Canada. The Heart Health Initiative is based on demonstration projects across Canada to test and implement comprehensive community based approaches to cardiovascular disease (CVD) Prevention. A recent report on the evaluation of the demonstration phase of the Canadian Heart Health Initiative was released in 2002. The next wave of demonstration models is testing integrated approaches to chronic disease prevention and control such as the Alberta Healthy living network which is the most recent demonstration site for CINDI.

CCDPC is also a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Non Communicable Disease (NCD) Policy. In this regard, it supports NCD policy development and implementation activities in Canada and with other WHO Member countries, more specifically in the Americas and Europe. In the past, this Collaborating Centre has focussed on the design and analysis of comparative studies of policy development processes related to chronic disease prevention among 30 industrialized countries. More recently the Collaborating Centre has worked towards the establishment of a Policy Observatory on Non-Communicable Diseases. The Policy Observatory is a joint initiative between WHO Collaborating Centre on NCD policy (Canada) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

The Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, (CCDPC) in Canada, as the WHO Collaborating Centre on NCD Policy (Canada), in partnership with WHO/PAHO, has been tasked by Member States of the Pan American Health Organizations "CARMEN" Initiative to co-lead the development of this Non-Communicable Disease Policy Observatory. CCDPC will be working collaboratively with a number of countries and engage stakeholders in multiple sectors. This will include health stakeholders across Canada, Brazil and Costa Rica, other sector ministries (such as finance, planning, education agriculture etc.) universities, NGOs and others. They will form part of a network of Technical Working Groups for the CARMEN NCD Policy Observatory, to guide the methodology and establish a platform for ongoing systematic analysis and dissemination. Canada, Brazil and Cost Rica will therefore be the pioneering countries for the Observatory. The development will be in five phases and an international panel of experts will be consulted as part of the first phase.

The CARMEN NCD Policy Observatory is a platform for the network of countries and institutions engaged in the systematic analysis and monitoring of non-communicable disease (NCD) - related public policies in the countries of the WHO-AMRO/PAHO regions. CARMEN stand for "Conjunto de Acciones para la Reduccion Multifactorial de las Enfermedades No Transmisibles". CARMEN represents the initiative adopted by the Pan American Health Organization for the prevention of chronic non-communicable disease in the Americas. The Observatory will promote the systematic analysis of information on key policies, including the context, formulation and implementation processes, any mitigating and constraining factors, as well as the real and potential impact of such policies. It will have a broad scope: public policies affecting chronic diseases prevention, risk factors and risk conditions and related legislations and regulations. These will be assessed in individual countries and across countries and will initially focus on nutrition, active living and tobacco control. The Policy Observatory will then support monitoring of NCD policy benchmarks and will provide sub-regional comparative analysis through case studies using qualitative and quantitative research methodology. Dissemination of the findings and of the knowledge generated, will be undertaken through a variety of channels including international policy dialogues, policy fora, publications and websites. The Observatory will open up opportunities for training and building capacity for NCD-related policy analysis within the PAHO-CARMEN regional network of countries and eventually engage other WHO networks and expand globally.

Other collaborative activities with WHO include the creation of a global NCD Infobase, a database of 8 major risk factors shared by the majority of leading non-communicable diseases, profiling the prevalence rates country by country which is also applicable in Canada.

CCDPC also collaborated with the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and other international agencies in the organization of the 5th International Heart Health Conference which took place in Milan, Italy, in June 2004, under the theme "Positioning Technology to Serve Global Heart Health", the Milan Declaration report will be released in the fall of 2004, by the International Heart Health Society on behalf of the International Advisory Board of this conference.

	The Public Health Agency of Canada hosted the 4th WHO Global Forum on Chronic Disease Prevention and Control - November 3 to 6, in Ottawa, Canada. The Forum brings together senior level country officials, international agencies and non governmental organizations as well as chronic disease and public health experts from around the world to advance the global chronic disease agenda. Expected key results of this meeting in relation to national, integrated chronic disease prevention and control was increased action at the country level; more productive collaboration among countries; increased focus on issues related to resource mobilization; heightened appreciation and understanding of the importance of effective advocacy.