High-Level Panel Discussion

“From Words to Action for Better Noncommunicable Disease Outcomes”

World Health Summit 16 October 2022 View the event and highlights here.

Media Release: The Defeat-NCD Partnership and The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India collaborate to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) Read full media release

Precision Lung Cancer Awareness Meet See full event video

Media Release: “Global Health Leaders Call for Redirection of Budgets to Build Resilient Health Systems with Strong Non-Communicable Diseases Service Delivery” – High-Level Panel Discussion on Addressing Non-Communicable Diseases During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Read full media release.

National Strategy and Costed Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases in Rwanda.
Read the full Strategy and Costed Action Plan here.

Call for Proposals: Implementation Research to Scale-up National NCD Responses for Achieving SDG 3.4 – Incentive Grants for Young Researchers from Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Read the full information here.

Examining the Intersection Between NCDs and COVID-19: Lessons and Opportunities from Emerging Data. Read the report here.

High level panel calls on immediate action on non-communicable diseases to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. View the media release & event highlights.

Market demand for non-communicable disease drugs and diagnostics: availability and affordability gaps in lower-middle-income countries. Read the full research.

Joint statement: Saving Lives with the HPV Vaccine Read the full Op-ed.

Implications of non-communicable diseases care policies on COVID-19 disease management. Read the full research paper.

On 26 October 2020, The Defeat-NCD Partnership hosted a high-level session at the World Health Summit. The session brought together global experts from governments, multilateral institutions, development banks, humanitarian organisations, academia, philanthropic foundations and private companies. Watch the video above to see presentations by health ministers from Myanmar and Rwanda detailing national strategies and costed action plans to reduce deaths from non-communicable diseases.

The Defeat-NCD Partnership helps low-resource countries to tackle today’s most significant global health challenge: premature death, sickness, disability, and the associated social and economic impacts from non-communicable diseases.

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The World Health Organization (WHO), which sets the norms and standards around NCDs, has said that these diseases were the cause of 70% of deaths in 2015 and that number is likely to rise. Approximately 48% of deaths of people under the age of 70 in 2015 in low- and middle-income countries were attributed to NCDs . The WHO also estimates that between 2008 and 2030, NCDs will cost low- and middle-income countries about US $21 trillion due to illness and lost production. These statistics, though mind numbing, are only the beginning as many of these diseases are treatable and the complications or premature deaths they are causing are completely avoidable.

The Partnership

The Partnership was born from the recognition that NCDs are now the major contributor to the global burden of disease. They kill at least 40 million people each year, the equivalent to 70% of all deaths globally. Each year, there are 15 million “premature” deaths (i.e. below the age of 70 years) from NCDs. Continuing with business as usual will increase this by a third by 2030. NCDs are not just medical problems. They have huge personal, social, and economic impacts and their rising prevalence is a serious setback for human and national development.

With the strong support of the World Health Organization, The Defeat-NCD Partnership was launched at the United Nations during the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York on 24th September 2018 as a “public private people” partnership to enable and assist all low-resource countries to scale-up action on Non-Communicable Diseases (“NCD”) through: (i) national capacity building, (ii) community scale-up of NCD services, (iii) affordability and accessibility of essential NCD supplies, and (iv) financing for country-level NCD programming.

The Defeat-NCD Partnership’s Secretariat has been hosted by the United Nations (most recently at UNITAR during 2019-2022) since its original set-up as the practical response to the widespread call for action on NCD. The Defeat-NCD Partnership is an independent, tax exempted association, with an international mandate, registered in Geneva, Switzerland, in accordance with Articles 60 et sequents of the Swiss Civil Code.

The purpose of the Partnership is to promote health by enabling and assisting countries to scale-up sustained action against NCDs, so as to advance sustainable development as envisaged by the United Nations through the SDGs and their successors.

The Partnership has a not-for profit making purpose.

Our Vision

Our vision is that of a world in which there is universal health coverage for NCDs. This is a direct contribution to the transformational 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to which all nations have subscribed.

Our Mission

Our mission is to enable and assist lower-income and lesser developed countries to scale-up sustained action against NCDs so that they can progress on SDG 3 “ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages” and, more specifically, to achieve target 3.4 to “reduce, by one-third, premature mortality from NCDs by 2030″. Accordingly, the priority focus of The Defeat-NCD Partnership is on the 49 least-developed and low-income countries with technical capacity building support also available to a further 43 lower-middle income countries.

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Diabetes and Hypertension

Our focus on diabetes and hypertension is justified by the public health burden. Each, on its own and in combination, cause most of the global NCD deaths. At the same time, the risk factors that lead to raised blood sugar and blood pressure are reducible. Both diabetes and hypertension are easily treatable and their complications largely avoidable.

Partnership focus

The Defeat-NCD Partnership prioritises poorer countries because they bear the brunt of the enormous impact of NCDs with some 48% of premature deaths occurring in low and lower-middle income countries. The resident of a low-income country faces a lifetime chance of 20-30% of dying from an NCD under the age of 70; this is two-to-four-fold higher than the equivalent risk for a high-income country resident. Meanwhile, when poor countries start getting a little more prosperous, the prevalence of NCD risk factors tend to initially increase.