Big step to 25% less NCD deaths

Message from:
Prof. Trevor A. Hassell
Chairman, Healthy Caribbean Coalition
Special Envoy for NCDs

Dear Members of the NCD Alliance Network,

We did it.

One week ago, there seemed little hope of convincing the world's governments to agree to reducing preventable deaths from NCDs by 25% by the year 2025.  Many said we would have to wait until next year. Some countries told us it was too hard to get agreement on such a concrete goal from all 193 UN Member States.

Thanks to the initiative of Jamaica and Samoa, and to the leadership of the United States, Barbados, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Norway, Russian Federation, Thailand and Switzerland, Member States gave hope to millions of people living with NCDs on Thursday evening by adopting the "25 by 25" target at the 65th World Health Assembly, with the remaining targets to be agreed at a formal Member State consultation before the end of October. We expect the full resolution to be formally adopted on Saturday morning at the Assembly.

This success is the outcome of months of work, starting last year with our call for this goal to be included in the UN Summit commitments, and maintaining the pressure through the subsequent rounds of consultation on the targets. Your efforts in the lead up to the WHA helped make the way for this decision, and the undaunted efforts of the NCD advocates in Geneva this week to keep pushing right to the last moment played a critical part.

The key decisions are:

to adopt a global target of a 25% reduction in premature mortality from non communicable diseases by 2025;
express strong support for additional work aimed at reaching consensus on targets relating to the four main risk factors, namely tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity;
note wide support expressed by Member States and other stakeholders around global voluntary targets considered so far including those relating to raised blood pressure, tobacco, salt/sodium and physical inactivity;

note support from among Member States and other stakeholders for the development of targets relating to obesity, fat intake, alcohol, cholesterol and health system responses such as availability of essential medicines for non communicable diseases.

We'll be sending more feedback from WHA early next week, but for now, let's celebrate this great victory and the knowledge that our collective effort has set the foundation for renewed national and global action to reduce preventable NCD deaths and save millions of lives.

With many thanks,

The NCD Alliance

Prof. Trevor A. Hassell
Chairman, Healthy Caribbean Coalition
Special Envoy for NCDs
Woodside, Bay Street
St. Michael, Barbados.

Tel. 246 429 5455/246 266 2905.

www.healthycaribbean.org.

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