On the road to 2025. Preparatory process for the Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs

On the road to 2025

Preparatory process for the Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs

Looking ahead to the Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (HLM4) in 2025 when the Heads of States and Government will come together to set a vision to prevent and control NCDs towards 2030 and 2050 through a political declaration to be decided in the UN General Assembly

How to get involved

Ongoing web-based consultation process

The WHO Secretariat is launching a consultative process to enable Member States, UN organizations, non-State actors to provide inputs into the preparation for the Fourth UN High-level Meeting on NCDs. For a full overview on how to get involved in the preparatory process, visit here

Please note that any enquiry should be sent to OnTheRoadTo2025@who.int

The following web-based consultations are currently ongoing:

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Web-based consultation: Informing key priorities before the next High-level meeting on NCDs (Phase 1: 1 May–17 June 2024)

Background

The Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) will be convened in 2025 as requested by Member States through resolution A/RES/73/2. The preparatory process will include high-level international and technical meetings, expert committees and consultations cosponsored by WHO and relevant partners, which may serve as technical inputs into the negotiations among Member States on the outcome document. Further, they may inform the recommendations to be included in the report of the WHO Director-General to the World Health Assembly 2025 through EB156 2025, titled Preparation for the Fourth High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, to be held in 2025.

Objective

This web-based consultation will provide an opportunity for all Member States, UN organizations, non-State actors and individuals with lived experience of health conditions to submit comments on key priority areas to inform the recommendations to be considered in the WHO Director-General’s report to the World Health Assembly 2025.

Comments can be submitted from 1 May to 17 June 2024, by completing the form below which calls on key priority areas that can lead to action-oriented recommendations required to achieve the 6 objectives of the Global NCD Action Plan 2013–2030 (NCD-GAP), with an added focus on the promotion of mental health and well-being.

Download the feedback template here.

All completed forms can be sent by email to OnTheRoadTo2025@who.int within the timeline provided.

All inputs received during the web-based consultation will be published online.

Additional opportunities

An additional consultation process will take place from 1 to 15 August 2024, to provide an opportunity for all Member States, UN organizations, non-State actors and individuals with lived experience of health conditions to review the first draft, and provide written comments, on the WHO Director-General’s report to the World Health Assembly 2025. Specific details will be shared closer to the date.
Additional opportunities to provide inputs to the draft report by the WHO Director-General will be made available through WHO regional offices through regional consultations to be held ahead of regional committee meetings in 2024.

Please note that any enquiry should be sent to OnTheRoadTo2025@who.int.

More information on WHO´s website: Web-based consultation: Informing key priorities before the next High-level meeting on NCDs (Phase 1: 1 May–17 June 2024)

Web-based consultation process in preparation for the International dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health

Background

The International dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health will be convened on 20–21 June 2024 with the aim to explore approaches of including NCDs and mental health responses within national health and financing plans. This is the second meeting of a series initiated in 2018 with the WHO Global Dialogue on Partnership for Sustainable Financing of Noncommunicable Disease Prevention and Control which was held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This meeting is a collaboration between WHO and the World Bank and will be held in a hybrid format (in-person/virtual).

The following technical background papers have been developed to inform the International dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health:

Additional documents

Web-based consultation process

The WHO Secretariat and the World Bank are launching a consultative process to enable Member States, UN organizations, non-State actors including organizations of individuals with lived experience of NCDs and mental health conditions to provide feedback on the content of the following:

the draft technical background papers (links provided above),
a paper containing a summary of each background paper, and
emerging messages that will inform the outcome document.

The outcome document of the International Dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health may also serve as to inform the negotiations among Member States on the outcomes from the Fourth High-level Meeting of the UNGA on the Prevention and Control of NCDs.

All stakeholder organizations are invited to contribute their views by sharing written feedback on any or all of the documents using the template that can be downloaded here. Once the template is completed, please email it to OnTheRoadTo2025@who.int.

The consultation period is until close of business 17 June 2024 (CEST).

Please send any enquiries to the aforementioned email address.

All inputs received through the web-based consultation will be published online.

Please note the web-based consultation and the International dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health form part of the preparatory processes for the Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the Prevention and Control of NCDs that will be convened in 2025 as requested in resolution A/RES/73/2.

Mandate

The Political declaration of the Third High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases (resolution A/RES/73/2) authorizes the President of the United Nations General Assembly to convene the Fourth High-level Meeting on NCDs in 2025. The scope, modalities, format and organization of the High-level Meeting on NCDs, including the dates, will be agreed upon by Member States through a separate resolution, which will be negotiated closer to the meeting.

African woman holing a baby in the middle of a crop field

What is at stake?

Every 2 seconds, someone under the age of 70 dies due to an NCD – including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease – or a mental health condition. Most of these deaths could have been prevented by providing timely, comprehensive and integrated preventive, curative and palliative health care services that are accessible and context appropriate, and through policy, legislative and regulatory measures.

Eighty-six percent of these lives lost prematurely occur in low- and middle-income countries where social, economic, and physical environments provide significantly less protection from the risks and consequences of NCDs than in high-income countries. This includes inadequate protection from risk factors such as tobacco use, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets, lack of physical activity, and exposure to air pollution.

Female health worker providing nutrition counseling to a woman

The opportunity

The Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (UNHLM-NCD) 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.

In the run up to the Fourth High-level Meeting, WHO urges every country, nongovernmental organization (NGO), entity, citizen and person living with an NCD to support local and global efforts to achieve the set of nine voluntary targets set by the World Health Assembly in 2013 for 2025, measured against a 2010 baseline. This will enable countries to achieve SDG target 3.4 (by 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from NCDs through prevention and treatment of NCDs and promotion of mental health and well-being), measured against a 2025 baseline.

WHO also encourages all countries to implement the commitments made by countries at the 3 high-level meetings on NCDs in 2011, 2014 and 2018 – and urges all donors to scale up much-needed financial and technical contributions for the prevention and control of NCDs through bilateral and multilateral channels, including WHO’s programme on NCDs and the relevant Trust Funds that have been established.

As we look ahead to the Fourth High-level meeting of the UN General Assembly in 2025 to reduce the risk of dying prematurely from NCDs and save lives, let us remember that every one of us has a role to play in this journey. Today and every day, let us realize the commitments made in 2018 to progressively cover more people living with or at risk of NCDs with health services and medicines, and protect them from exposure to key risk factors.

Image of a waiting room of a health facility with several patients waiting

International leadership is building momentum to save lives and improve livelihoods with NCDs

In April 2022, the Government of Ghana, the Government of Norway and the World Health Organization co-hosted an "International Strategic Dialogue on NCDs and the SDGs".

Building on the flagship Norway–WHO joint initiative to strengthen the delivery of basic NCDs health services in several countries, the dialogue brought together national and international actors to exchange knowledge and prioritize national NCD responses.

Key outcomes included the launch of the Global NCD Compact 2020–2030 to accelerate the progress towards the NCD and SDG targets. A Global Group of Heads of State and Government was formed with the aim to call on countries to align strategies and operations with universal commitments made to accelerate and scale up the global collective efforts to prevent and control NCDs and achieve UHC. The Global Group meets annually during the High-level general debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2022 towards 2025. Additionally, countries like Kenya, Thailand, and Uruguay are stewarding the Health4Life Fund to catalyse financing for country action, with generous support from the Government of Scotland to enable the launch of the first round of country grants in 2024.

Preparatory process leading to the Fourth High-level Meeting in 2025

The preparatory process leading to the Fourth High-level Meeting will include meetings cosponsored by WHO which may result in recommendations that, in turn, may serve as an input into the development of chapter 6 (Recommendations) of the 2024 progress report of the United Nations Secretary-General, as well as the preparatory process and the Fourth High-level Meeting itself.

The current list of meetings includes:

2021

WHO SIDS health summit
Ministerial meeting on diabetes
Foods system summit
Nutrition-for-growth summit
Ninth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP9)
Second session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (MOP2)
United Nations Climate Conference of the Parties (COP26)
10th international conference of health promotion

2022

2023

2024

10th session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP10), 5–10 February 2024, Panama
Third session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (MOP3), 12–15 February 2024, Panama
High-level technical meeting on NCDs in emergencies, Copenhagen, 27–29 February
1^st Multistakeholder forum for second global dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health, 15 March
1^st WHO symposium on meaningful engagement, April
Web-based consultations, 22 April–20 May
2^nd Multistakeholder forum for second global dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health, 6 May
WHO second global dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health, Washington D.C., 18–20 June
2nd WHO symposium on meaningful engagement, September/November
Second general meeting of the Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs (GCM), November
WHO global oral health meeting, 26–29 November

2025

Member States will consider the report of the United Nations Secretary-General at the United Nations General Assembly.
The President of the United Nations General Assembly will appoint 2 co-facilitators who will preside over the negotiations among Permanent Missions in New York of a “modalities resolution” setting out the scope, modalities, format and organization of the Fourth High-level Meeting.
Dialogue of President of the United Nations General Assembly with civil society and the private sector.
The co-facilitators will preside over the negotiations among Permanent Missions in New York on the 2025 outcome document
The Fourth High-level Meeting will convene under the auspices of the President of the United Nations General Assembly (as per the date included in the “modalities resolution”) to adopt the outcome document. The High-level Meeting will also provide an opportunity for Member States to deliver statements, and for Member States, NGOs and private sector entities to engage in roundtable discussions.

2024 Progress report of the United Nations Secretary-General

The Political Declaration of the Third High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable diseases (resolution A/RES/73/2) requests the United Nations Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly, by the end of 2024, for consideration by Member States, a report on the progress achieved in the implementation of the 2011, 2014 and 2018 Political Declarations on NCDs.

Taking into account WHO’s leadership and coordination role in promoting and monitoring global action against NCDs, including in relation to the work of other relevant United Nations agencies, development banks, and other regional and international organizations in addressing NCDs in a coordinated manner, the WHO Director-General will prepare the report, in consultation with Member States, on behalf of the Secretary-General.

The format of the report in 2024 will be similar to the format used as previous reports and will include:

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Progress towards internationally-agreed targets: Where do we stand? (Advances and challenges)
Chapter 3: Progress made in fulfilling the assignments given to WHO
Chapter 4: Progress made in fulfilling the commitments made by Member States
Chapter 5: Progress made in strengthening international cooperation
Chapter 6: Recommendations for consideration by Member States during the negotiations on the 2025 political declaration on NCDs
Annex: Individual country data on the 10 progress indicators set out in the technical note published by WHO on 1 May 2017.

Key resolutions, decisions and commitments on NCDs

The road to 2025 builds on key World Health Assembly resolutions, decisions and commitments made by Member States to advance the NCD agenda, including:

Resolution WHA53.17 (2000) on prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
Resolution WHA57.17 (2004) on global strategy on diet, physical activity and health.
Resolution WHA63.13 (2010) on global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.
Resolution WHA65.6 (2012) on comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition.
Resolution WHA66.8 (2013) on comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2020.
Resolution WHA66.10 (2013) which endorsed the NCD-GAP and adopted the global monitoring framework (GMF) comprising 9 global targets and 25 indicators, with EB130.R7 outlining the process for implementation of the GMF. Further review and refreshing of the GMF was later recommended to ensure greater alignment with major developments in the field of international health and development since 2013 including the SDGs and their targets and indicators.
Resolution WHA68.19 (2015) on outcome of the Second International Conference on Nutrition.
Resolution WHA70.12 (2017) on cancer prevention and control in the context of an integrated approach.
Decision WHA70(17) (2017) on global action plan on the public health response to dementia.
Decision WHA70(19) (2017) on report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity: implementation plan.
Resolution WHA71.6 (2018) on WHO global action plan on physical activity 2018–2030.
Resolution WHA71.9 (2018) on infant and young child feeding.
Resolution WHA72.11 (2019) to extend the period of the NCD-GAP to 2030 to ensure alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to consolidate annual reports to be submitted to the Health Assembly through the Executive Board, from 2021 to 2031, annexing reports on implementation of relevant resolutions, action plans and strategies.
A mid-point evaluation of the progress achieved in the implementation of the NCD GAP was conducted in 2020.
Resolution WHA74.4 (2021) on reducing the burden of NCDs through strengthening prevention and control of diabetes.
Implementation roadmap 2023–2030 for the global action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2013–2030 (NCD-GAP), as requested by WHA74.10, was submitted to the 75th World Health Assembly (A75/10 Add.8) (2022)
Resolution A75/10 Add.2, Annex 4 (2022) with recommendations on how to strengthen the design and implementation of policies, including those for resilient health systems and health services and infrastructure, to treat people living with NCDs and to prevent and control their risk factors in humanitarian emergencies.
Decision WHA75(11) (2022) adopted recommendations for the prevention and management of obesity over the life course and related targets, which were accompanied by an acceleration plan that clarifies how WHO will support Member States in implementing these recommendations.
Update of Appendix 3, formulated in response to decisions WHA72.11 (2019) and WHA75.11 (2022), to complement existing global strategies and action plans and several new technical products that support the implementation road map 2023‒2030 for the GAP-NCD, including the WHO menu of cost-effective interventions for mental health, the recommended interventions to address the health impact of air pollution, and the menu of cost-effective interventions for oral health.
Resolution WHA76 (9) (2023) endorsed the draft updated menu of policy options and cost-effective interventions for the prevention and control of NCDs (2022 update of Appendix 3 of the WHO GAP-NCDs 2013–2030) and requested the revision of interventions in Appendix 3 on a continuous basis, when data are available.
2023 Bridgetown Declaration on NCDs and mental health launched during the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Ministerial Conference on NCDs and mental health held on 14–16 June 2023.

Previous reports of the United Nations Secretary-General on the progress made in the prevention and control of NCDs

(2017) Fourth report https://undocs.org/en/A/72/662
(2013) Third report https://undocs.org/A/68/650
(2011) Second report https://undocs.org/en/A/66/83
(2010) First report https://undocs.org/en/A/65/362

WHO Progress Monitor on NCDs

Reports of the WHO Director-General on the progress made in the prevention and control of NCDs