Women & Non-Communicable Diseases – A Call to Action: Making good on the promise of gender mainstreaming to address global health inequities

NCDs remain the leading global cause of death and disability. When it comes to NCDs, women and girls around the world are at even greater risk of either contracting some NCDs or in challenges accessing healthcare, particularly in low-resource contexts.

The George Institute for Global Health calls on representatives of the United Nations and international bodies, governments, business, civil society, health professionals, researchers, philanthropic organisations, and the public must join a coordinated movement to safeguard the health of women, girls, and gender minorities by tackling NCDs.

In alignment with the NCD Alliance's call-to-lead, they are urging governments to:
 

1. Accelerate implementation: commit to pursue and promote gender-based care and mainstream a gender perspective into multisectoral national NCD action plans.1
2. Mobilise investment: prioritise under supported women-specific NCDs including implementing commitments to meet WHO targets on cervical cancer by 2030.
3. Break Down Silos: adopt a life-course approach to women’s health, integrating NCD services into routine services.
4. Engage communities: work with academia and civil society to prioritise routine collection and analysis of data disaggregated by sex, gender, and other intersecting characteristics to support the design, implementation, and monitoring of effective, targeted interventions.
5. Deliver accountability: uphold women’s health and human rights – implementing recommendations made by the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Read the positioning statement here.