News

GCM/NCD Kick-off Meeting 2024: A turning point for renewed multisectoral and multistakeholder agendas

This year, Participants of the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (GCM/NCD) are invited to jointly discuss and shape strategic inputs to the preparatory process for the Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs (HLM4), in 2025.

A kick-off meeting on 8 April 2024 will officially launch a series of gatherings and collaborative efforts between Member States, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, philanthropic foundations, people with lived experience, and academic institutions. The aim is to propose a renewed multisectoral and multistakeholder agenda that will inform the Second General Meeting of the GCM/NCD in November 2024 and align with other thematic WHO co-sponsored meetings.

Some 15 million premature deaths related to NCDs have occurred each year since the last high-level meeting on NCDs in 2018. The HLM4 hence calls for the urgent adaptation of a new, ambitious, yet achievable political declaration on NCDs that is both evidence-informed and firmly grounded in human rights principles.

Multisectoral and multistakeholder approaches remain a promising framework to accelerate the global, national and local NCD responses, placing countries on a collaborative and sustainable path towards reducing the risk of dying prematurely from NCDs, improve mental health care, and save lives. The Second General Meeting of the GCM/NCD will mark a milestone event in leveraging the power of multisectoral and multistakeholder NCD responses, aiming to provide key recommendations and inputs into the preparatory process for HLM4 in 2025.

Established by Member States in 2014, the GCM/NCD is a platform aiming to strengthen national capacity, leadership, governance, multisectoral action and partnerships for NCD according to the WHO Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2030, its implementation roadmap, and the NCD-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The GCM/NCD facilitates whole-of-society collaboration for improved NCD and mental health prevention and care, provides countries with technical assistance whole-of-government action, and fosters high-level commitments at local, national, regional and global levels.

The kick-off meeting is reserved for GCM Participants. Please register here.