NCDs & The 74th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 74)

Building momentum around NCD action at the UNGA 74

We are excited to take part in events at UNGA 74 this September 17- 30, 2019 in New York City.

The two big summits to watch for this year are ‘Making Universal Health Coverage a reality’ and ‘Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’. Both of these issues could be more successful if we elevate and operationalize our dialogue on NCDs.

NCDs and the Sustainable Development Goals

Insufficient financing threatens the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda. The current financing gap in developing countries is US$2.5 trillion. Even though NCDs make up the largest  portion of the global disease burden, they often go unmentioned in the SDGs framework. It is estimated that the GDP losses from cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and COPD in low- and middle-income countries will surpass US$47 trillion from 2011 to 2025. While NCDs are housed under SDG3 - health and well-being, they have implications across all sectors and the financing gap is especially significant for this goal. Governments are committed to developing national responses to NCDs, but to realize this more funding will be necessary - including from non-traditional actors.

NCDs and Universal Health Coverage

Similarly, the pathway toward achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has been a huge focus in the global health community, but would be strengthened by incorporating NCDs to a greater extent. Popular belief holds that NCDs impact only a certain portion of the world's population, but NCDs are in fact a universal problem. Over the next ten years, deaths from NCDs are likely to increase by 17%, and the Africa Region will experience a 27% increase. By 2030, deaths by NCDs in Africa is projected to exceed communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional diseases combined. Yet, only 10% of NCDI projects in the poorest countries, explicitly target their poorest population. We should ensure that the pathway toward achieving UHC addresses current NCD investment gaps.

 HFI@UNGA --- Coffee Chats with founders 

Contact & Meet the founders of HFI at UNGA 74 over a cup of coffee - there are five open slots left!
 

Dr. Andrea Feigl
Founder & Executive Director
andrea@healthfinanceinstitute.org

Surabhi Bhatt
Co-Founder & Director of Strategy and Operations
surabhi@healthfinanceinstitute.org

#HFIatUNGA 

HFI's Impact Metrics

 

 Resources

• National Public Radio (NPR), "The Invisible Children With Cancer".
• Newsweek, "Vaping May Be Linked To One Death, 193 Lung Injuries, CDC Reports”.
• Newsweek, “Diabetes Could Raise Cancer Risk Because of How High Blood Sugar Levels Affect DNA".
• The Brookings Institution, "Modeling community efforts to reduce childhood obesity".
• International Business Times, "Cancer now 'leading cause of death' in rich countries"
• Cable News Network (CNN), "One person dies every 40 seconds from Suicide, WHO says"
• American Lung Association, "American Lung Association: Do Not Use E-Cigarettes"
• Al Jazeera, "Frontier Finance' is scaling up to achieve United Nations goals"

Other Upcoming Events

• Global Impact Investing Network Investor Forum 2019, 2-3 October 2019, Amsterdam, Netherlands, organized by Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN).
• SOCAP19, 22-25 October 2019, San Francisco, US, organized by Social Capital Markets (SOCAP).
• World Health Summit, 27-29 October 2019, Berlin, Germany, organized by Charité
• 15th EVPA Annual Conference, 5-7 November 2019, The Hague, Netherlands, organized by European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA).
• WHO Global Meeting To Accelerate Progress on SGD target 3.4 on NCDs and Mental Health, 9-12 December 2019, Muscat, Oman, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO).