Why Non-Communicable Diseases Must Be Part of Any New Development Goals

Posted on

In a recent post on the Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog, Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive of the World Heart Federation, and Ann Keeling, Chief Executive of the International Diabetes Federation, argue that post-MDG development goals must include non-communicable diseases in order to see significant reductions in poverty and improvements in development.

From the post:

In 2000, world leaders drafting the millennium development goals (MDGs) addressed many of the great development challenges, but they made one serious mistake: they omitted any mention of NCDs, which together cause nearly two out of three deaths in the world (80% of those in developing countries).

As the CEOs of the leading advocacy organisations fighting two of those NCDs, we believe this omission has resulted in a double whammy to NCDs – no attention, no funding – despite the fact that NCDs are overwhelmingly a poverty issue and related to all eight MDGs.

“What gets measured, gets done,” says World Health Organisation director general Margaret Chan. But NCDs are not getting measured and therefore not “getting done”.

Read the full post here.