The World Health Organization’s Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (WHO GCM/NCD) is a Member State-led platform facilitating multi-stakeholder engagement and cross-sectoral collaboration to prevent and control NCDs and mental health conditions. Founded in 2014, the WHO GCM/NCD’s mandate was recently extended until 2030.
The impact of NCDs and mental health conditions, their shared risk factors and their determinants on individuals, communities and economies is one of the most important global health challenges of this century. Globally, 7 of the 10 leading causes of death in 2019 were NCDs, including diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and oral diseases. A great majority of premature deaths from NCDs occur in low-and middle-income countries. Often, these premature deaths are linked to insufficiently monitored and mitigated NCD risk factors such as tobacco use, obesity, alcohol consumption or air pollution. The annual global burden of mental health conditions is estimated to cost US$ 1 trillion of lost economic output.
Progress towards achieving SDG 3.4 – reducing premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by one third by 2030 – is stalling, and many countries are missing critical capacity to reverse trends in NCD risk factors as well as the resources for health systems to keep up with the needs to address NCDs.
Yet, tackling the global burden of NCDs and mental health conditions remains achievable. Evidence shows that inclusive health systems with contextualized interventions for both risk factors and diseases are effective against NCDs. Through collaborative and multisectoral policy approaches, governments, health actors and partners can address the structural social determinants of NCDs and improve health equity. Coherent multisectoral (whole-of-government) and multistakeholder (whole-of-society) engagement are hence key to accelerate progress.
The WHO GCM/NCD is a multistakeholder platform convening participants through an inclusive whole-of-society approach. It connects Member State, UN Organizations, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, philanthropic foundations, people with lived experience, academic institutions and other partners for a coordinated NCD response.
Together, they promote, enable and enhance multisectoral and multistakeholder action to accelerate progress towards global and national NCD targets. Their vision is a world free from premature mortality from NCDs and mental health conditions through a life-course approach.
The George Institute is a leading independent global medical research institute with major centres in Australia, China, India and the UK, and an international network of experts and collaborators.
The GCM/NCD leverages WHO’s three strategic shifts - leadership functions as global health agency, norms and standard setting and county support - to build technical capabilities for effective leadership, governance, multisectoral action and partnerships to accelerate country response for the prevention and control of NCDs.
Across five priority areas and several strategic initiatives, the GCM/NCD is dedicated to:
Is your organization and international player advocating and raising awareness on NCDs? Are you advancing multisectoral action, work with people and communities living with NCD and mental health conditions, or disseminating knowledge and information to beat NCDS?
Then we would like to hear from you.
