On the Road to 2025: a WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region multi-stakeholder consultation in preparation for the Fourth UN High-level Meeting on NCDs

The preparatory process for the fourth High-level Meeting on NCDs aims to address gaps and identify solutions to accelerate progress towards achieving SDG target 3.4 on NCDs and mental health by 2030 (to reduce by one third premature mortality from NCDs through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being), and to set strategic directions towards the anticipated 2050 agenda. The process will include high-level global and technical meetings, expert committees and consultations co-sponsored by WHO and relevant partners, which may serve as technical inputs into the negotiations among Member States on the outcome document of the fourth High level Meeting. Furthermore, they may inform the recommendations to be included in the report of the WHO Director-General to the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025 through the 156th Executive Board, titled Preparation for the fourth High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs. 

The WHO Secretariat has launched a consultative process to enable Member States, United Nations organizations, non-State actors and individuals with lived experience of health conditions to provide inputs into the preparation for the fourth High-level Meeting on NCDs. Building on a global consultation held by WHO headquarters in June 2024, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean conducted a web-based consultation on 13 August 2024 to provide a more Region-specific context to the recommendations. 
The two-hour consultation was facilitated by WHO technical staff from the Regional Office and WHO headquarters. Participants included NCD technical focal points from WHO country offices, representatives of civil society organizations, academia and people with lived experience, and managers and focal points from concerned ministry of health programmes, such as primary health care, NCDs, tobacco control, nutrition, health promotion, healthy cities, physical activity and environmental health. In total, 188 participants from 20 Member States in the Region attended the consultation.