The WHO GCM/NCD Year-in-Review 2025: Partnerships and Actions on NCDs

2025 was a challenging year for global health. For the Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs (GCM/NCD), it was a year of adapting and strengthening partnerships and activities, and of inspiring and meaningful engagement with countries, people and communities. Here are some of the highlights of how the GCM/NCDs worked to advance multistakeholder and multisectoral action on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) this year.

February: Workshop on scaling grassroots innovations on NCDs through the public sector in Kigali | Advocacy messages for Meaningful Engagement of People Living with NCDs, Mental Health, and Neurological Conditions

On the sidelines of the 4th Global NCD Alliance Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, the GCM/NCD co-hosted a two-day capacity-sharing workshop on scaling promising NCD interventions through public sector support. Twenty-five participants, including government officials and representatives of community organizations discussed enablers and barriers to scaling grassroots innovations with technical experts. 

During the NCD Alliance forum, the WHO Symposium on Meaningful Engagement also launched its new advocacy messages on Meaningful Engagement of People Living with NCDs, Mental Health, and Neurological Conditions.

News

Workshop report: Scaling Grassroots Innovations through the Public Sector to Address NCDs

News

New advocacy tool: Key messages for Meaningful Engagement of People Living with NCDs, Mental Health, and Neurological Conditions

March: First WHO dialogue with deans and directors of public health and business schools on preventing and managing NCDs

At the first WHO dialogue on business and public health convergence, deans, directors and senior faculty of business and public health schools met with business leaders and global health experts to examine how research, education and leadership that can transform the economic, commercial, environmental and social determinants of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). 

News

Business for health: First dialogue with deans and directors of public health and business schools on preventing and managing NCDs

April: Second General Meeting of the GCM/NCD

In late April, the Second General Meeting of the Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs (GCM/NCD) convened Member States, civil society actors and partners to put forward recommendations on accelerating multisectoral and multistakeholder responses to NCDs and mental health conditions. More than 300 participants from over 50 countries were part of the meeting, which  marked one of several major milestones on the road to 2025 and the Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on NCDs (HLM4).

Page

Second General Meeting of the WHO GCM/NCD

July: BMJ-series: Lived Experience as Expertise

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) launched a new series titled “Lived Experience as Expertise” which was co-developed with World Health Organization’s Global Coordination Mechanisms on Noncommunicable diseases (WHO GCM/NCD). 

News

New BMJ-series: Lived Experience as Expertise

Thematic Collection

Lived Experience Perspectives Series

September: GCM/NCD Issue Briefs on multisectoral and multistakeholder actions on noncommunicable diseases

Co-developed with GCM Participant organizations and under jont leadership with the NCD Alliance, The George Institute for Global Health and the World Obesity Federation, the thematic issue briefs discuss three urgent aspects required to drive multisectoral governance and actions: (i) Institutionalizing multisectoral governance for sustainable collaboration on NCDs; (ii) Advancing data-driven, evidence-informed multisectoral action, and (iii) Building multisectoral narratives for coherent government-wide leadership in the NCD response. The publication was officially launched at the Fourth Multistakeholder Gathering in New York, co-organised by WHO GCM/NCD, the NCD Alliance and the World Diabetes Foundation, and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Health of Brazil.

Knowledge

Advancing multisectoral and multistakeholder actions on noncommunicable diseases: thematic issue briefs

News

Fourth Multistakeholder Gathering charts pathways for stronger NCD and mental health governance

November: First GCM Participant Gathering 

The first in a new series of GCM Participant Gatherings virtually brought together more than 150 participants representing 50 civil society organizations and lived experience advocates. The discussion focused on maintaining momentum and prioritizing implementation following the UN High-level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health, with particular attention to equity and inclusion across the life course, responding to the major risk factors and systemic determinants of health, addressing physical and mental health issues in an integrated way, and addressing challenges across sectors and settings. 

Thematic Collection

GCM Participant Gathering | November 2025 | Resource collection