19 September 2012 – Today marks the 1st anniversary of the UN High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), held on 19-20 September 2011 in New York adopting the Political Declaration on NCDs. This important declaration enabled the global community to set the goal to reduce premature deaths from NCDs by 25% by 2025 during the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2012.

However, this first step is only one of many that must follow to make sure that the fight against NCDs remains on the world health agenda. The NCD Alliance (NCDA), composed of the International Diabetes Federation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, the World Heart Federation and the Union for International Cancer Control, will therefore continue to advocate for the adoption of a comprehensive Global NCD Framework, as well as the inclusions of NCDs in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

In order to mark this important anniversary, the NCDA has sent an open letter to UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-moon to thank him for the continued attention and action on NCDs. The Alliance encourages others, to use this template to write to their respective leaders to mark this anniversary and rally them to renew their efforts in placing the fight again NCDs at the top of their health agendas.

To find out more about this one-year anniversary, we invite you to visit the following link:

NCD Alliance: One year anniversary of the UN High-Level Summit

To help turn these commitments to the fight against cancer and other NCDs into action, please consult the “NCCP Toolkit”.