Time to deliver: accelerating our response to address non-communicable diseases for the health and well-being of present and future generations

After months of concerted advocacy work, UN Member States met on the 27th September 2018 to adopt the political declaration on NCDs, entitled “Time to deliver: accelerating our response to address non-communicable diseases for the health and well-being of present and future generations”. This was the first such comprehensive review since the adoption of the Agenda 2030 (or the Sustainable Development Goals), which include targets 3.4, to reduce premature mortality by one-third, and 3.8, achieving universal health coverage including financial risk protection.

At the meeting in New York, then UICC President-Elect, HRH Princess Dina, represented civil society organisations in the opening panel. Reflecting on the hope she felt at the High-level Meeting on NCDs in 2011, Princess Dina made an impassioned call to the Heads of State and Government present to step up action to deliver for patients and their families. Progress, she said, has been too slow and too uneven to make a difference to the people behind the statistics on cancer and NCDs.

The 2018 political declaration resulting from this meeting was intended to spur on action at country level, while also serving as a global consensus document. However, the preparations for the meeting and negotiations around the declaration text were subject to significant political pressures, and as a result Member States needed to develop consensus language on key issues. The resulting document is one which many civil society organisations, including UICC, feels lacks the necessary ambition and comprehensive thinking required to drive the agenda forward. It does, however, offer some opportunities for cancer control advocacy, and we have drawn these together in a high-level summary document available here.