11 July 2014: At a high-level meeting, UN Member States agreed to step up national efforts toward the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes, lung disease, heart disease and stroke. They also agreed to consider addressing NCDs in the post-2015 development agenda, in view of NCDs’ links with poverty.
The ‘high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the comprehensive review and assessment of the progress achieved in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases’ was held in New York, US, from 10-11 July 2014. Participants reviewed progress on NCDs since Member States previously met in 2011. The 2011 Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs established a goal of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by 25% by the year 2025.
At the 2014 meeting, countries agreed to consider setting national targets toward the 2025 goal by the year 2015, including measures to mainstream NCD control in development planning, and to track the economic, social and environmental determinants of health.
The Outcome Document of the meeting (A/68/L.53, later issued as A/RES/68/300) invites the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to track official development assistance (ODA) provided to support national efforts on NCDs. It also calls on the World Health Organization (WHO) to monitor private and civil society contributions to addressing NCDs, and requests the UN Secretary-General to submit a progress report by the end of 2017, in preparation for the next comprehensive review in 2018.
UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark said heart disease, cancer, lung disease and diabetes combined cost low- and middle-income countries an estimated US$500 billion a year in loss of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the 2011 Political Declaration has not been fully implemented with regard to collaboration with the private sector to limit the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages. She noted that obesity is still on the rise and healthier food formulations are neither affordable nor accessible in large parts of the developing world. She called for health systems in the developing world to address efforts toward the long-term management of chronic health conditions, and to prioritize prevention, including through measures such as alcohol taxes and enforcement of advertising bans on tobacco. She stressed that addressing NCDs will require efforts beyond the health sector to involve, for example, education ministries in improving school meals and agriculture ministries in ensuring the availability of nutritious food.
WHO country profiles show that 38 million people die annually from NCDs, and that NCD deaths have increased in every region since the year 2000, with the highest increases being in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. A December 2013 ‘Report of the WHO Director-General on the Prevention and Control of NCDs’ recommended setting national targets for 2025 based on national situations, taking into account previously agreed global targets and the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs 2013-2020. [Draft Outcome Document] [Meeting Webpage] [Meeting Summary, 10 July] [Meeting Summary, 11 July] [Statement of UN Secretary-General] [UN Press Release] [WHO Press Release] [Opening Remarks of UNGA President] [Publication: Report of the Director-General of the World Health Organization on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases] [2011 Political Declaration]