Ifakara Health Institute has officially unveiled a new project which goes by the name of Global Regulatory & Fiscal Capacity Building Program (Global RECAP) which aims to investigate policies on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Tanzania.

The program was officially launched with a day-long engagement meeting of government and key agencies stakeholders, and a special community awareness raising activity at Chadulu area in the capital which was colored by a traditional performance carrying the message on preventing non-communicable diseases.

Principal Investigator of the project, Dr. Sally Mtenga, told the stakeholders the program responds to the increasing recognition that the burden of NCDs in Tanzania is alarming. “The common NCDs in the country include hypertension and diabetes. These diseases are mainly linked to unhealthy diet which is known as one of the major modifiable risk factors,” she said.

Against this background, the RECAP program team intends, through a three-year study, to provide evidence on the existing policies and policy gaps in creating healthy food environments, as well as estimate the economic burden of nutrition-related non-communicable diseases to generate evidence for policy action.

The evidence generated, through the study, will inform government actions towards developing a package of effective regulatory interventions for a healthier food environment to reduce nutrition-related NCDs in Tanzania.

The study is supported by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) as part of the Global RECAP program, (in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya), and will be implemented in collaboration with the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Kenya, PRICELESS SOUTH AFRICA and EPRC in Uganda. #