WHF Position Statement for United Nations Fourth High-Level Meeting-2025

As the world gauges progress towards the SDG targets set for 2030, it is becoming evident that most countries are not on track to achieving them. Collective resolve among all nations and pooled global resources are needed to accelerate progress to reach as close to those targets as possible. It is also clear that commitment to those targets must continue beyond 2030 since many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) will most likely experience rising burdens of non-communicable diseases (NCD) for some decades beyond the SDG dateline and to ensure commitment from the global community. This is especially true for target 3.4, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, and mental health, which are responsible for over 43 million deaths worldwide every year, with 18 million dying prematurely before the age of 70 years, and also cause the majority of morbidity and disability.1 This is because ongoing demographic, nutritional, and environmental transitions in those countries will result in an accelerated incidence of NCD in the future. The inequities between and within countries are huge. The probability of premature deaths in Western Europe and Canada is as low as 15 percent, while it remains as high as 52 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa.