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As high quality population-based breast cancer screening programmes are implemented in more countries, they will offer an unprecedented opportunity to assess the level of coverage of the population for initial and repeat screening, evaluation of performance, and, in the longer term, outcome of screening in terms of reduction in the incidence of late-stage disease and in mortality.

The control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) was addressed by the declaration of the 66th UN General Assembly followed by the World Health Organisation’s NCD 2020 Action Plan. There is a clear need to better apply evidence in public health settings to tackle both behaviour-related factors and the underlying social and economic conditions. This article describes concepts of evidence based public health and outlines a set of actions that are essential for a successful global NCD prevention. The authors describe the importance of knowledge translation with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of public health services, replying on both quantitative and qualitative evidence. In particular, the role of capacity building is highlighted because it is fundamental to progress in controlling NCDs. Important challenges for capacity building include the need to bridge diverse disciplines, build the evidence base across countries, and the lack of formal training in public health sciences. As brief case examples, several successful capacity building efforts are highlighted to address challenges and further evidence-based decision making. The need for a more comprehensive public health approach, addressing social, environmental and cultural conditions, has led to a whole-of government and whole-of society strategies that are now on the agenda due to efforts such as the WHO's NCD 2020 Action Plan and the Health 2020 European Policy Framework. These efforts need research to generate evidence in new areas (e.g., equity, sustainability), training to build public health capacity, and a continuous process of improvement and knowledge generation and translation.