On the road to the 2025 United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are an urgent crisis hiding in plain sight. Accounting for 75% of all deaths worldwide, NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, and mental health conditions, impose years of disability on those affected and hamper economic growth. Most of these deaths and disability could have been prevented by policy, legislative and regulatory measures to protect people from risk factors such as tobacco use, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets, lack of physical activity, and exposure to air pollution, and to respond to the needs of those living with NCDs through integrated people-centred care and whole-of-system, rights-based and equity approaches.

Heads of State and Government have re-committed to addressing the needs of people living with and affected by NCDs and mental health, neurological and substance use conditions through the 2011, 2014 and 2018 UN High-level meetings on NCDs. However, now more than ever, bold leadership is needed to achieve the NCD targets by aligning strategies with universal commitments, catalysing multisectoral and multistakeholder action, and scaling impact at country level. The Global NCD Compact 2020–2030 and the Global Group of Heads of State and Government for NCDs were launched in 2022 to accelerate progress and scale up the prevention and control of NCDs toward achieving universal health coverage (UHC).

Next year, the world will convene for the fourth meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs. It will provide an opportunity to adopt a new, ambitious and achievable political declaration on NCDs towards 2050, based on evidence and grounded in human rights, that will serve as an important framework to accelerate the global NCD response for prevention and control from 2025. There is a critical need to reenergize commitment at the highest levels of government, and bolster engagement by partners, to move closer towards achieving SDG target 3.4 to reduce by one third premature mortality from NCDs through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being, by 2030.

The Global Group of Heads of State and Government for NCDs will play a critical role in amplifying the attention, and action, on NCDs and mental health to chart a unified, bold vision on the road to 2025. The Group will convene a third annual gathering on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on 24 September 2024 at 07:15 to 08:15, with objectives to:

• raise the priority accorded to the prevention and control of NCDs within the national and international SDG response;
• deliberate on the Global NCD Compact 2020–2030 and showcase national and international actions on NCD and the SDGs;
• discuss on how to leverage the collective to inspire and support global and local action on NCDs and the SDGs;
• chart a bold vision for the fourth UN high-level meeting on NCDs in 2025 as a pivotal moment of redefining the NCD agenda towards 2030 and 2050.

The event will be co-chaired by the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, H.E. Gaston Browne and the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.