Getting the Politics Right for the September 2011 UN High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases

The UN General Assembly’s decision to convene a “high-level meeting on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide” in September 2011 creates a major, timely opportunity to elevate chronic diseases onto the global stage. Just as the 2001 UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS was a pivotal moment in the global response to AIDS, there is hope that the September session on NCDs can become a historic rallying point. But NCDs do not enjoy many of the advantages that helped propel AIDS to become a global priority. High-level leadership is thus far missing, and the odds are long that the September meeting will have a transformative impact. Important gains are indeed possible in September but only with disciplined pragmatism and urgent, focused action taken to seize the moment. This report draws on several sources: an online qualitative survey, released to the public as well as to invited select experts, which resulted in 109 detailed responses; nine expert interviews with key leaders in global health; and recent reports on noncommunicable diseases by the Institute of Medicine, The Lancet, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Center for Global Development.