The World Heart Federation (WHF) is actively advocating for ambitious commitments at the Fourth United Nations High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on NCDs in September 2025. With a focus on combating cardiovascular disease (CVD), WHF is calling for bold political declarations, the development of national cardiovascular health plans, and prioritization of evidence-based actions to drive global progress in reducing CVD incidence and mortality.
Where and When?
The Fourth United Nations High Level Meeting (UN HLM) of the UN General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) will be convened in 2025 as requested by Member States through resolution A/RES/73/2. It will happen in New York, just before the UN General Assembly, in September 2025.
What is a UN High-Level Meeting?
A High-Level Meeting is a global multilateral process gathering all national governments at the highest political level at the United Nations to increase awareness and consensus among heads of state on important global issues for the good of people worldwide1. These meetings result in a Political Declaration or Outline Documents, which outlines commitments and actions by Member States to tackle specific challenges. There have already been several high-level meetings, on diverse topics such as Universal Health Coverage, NCDs, Antimicrobial Resistance, among others.
In the context of NCDs, three UN HLM have already happened, in 2011, 2014 and 2018 with the specific objectives of raising awareness of the health crisis posed by NCDs as well as facilitating international cooperation and commitment, including policy makers, world leaders and representatives from various sectors – in addressing these diseases.
Why it matters?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) – a class of diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels (veins and arteries) and part of the broader category of NCDs – continues to claim over 20.5 million lives each year, yet it is largely preventable through cost-effective strategies targeting key risk factors such as unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, air pollution and conditions like diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
These strategies further contribute to addressing broader socioeconomic challenges, making them a vital investment in equity. However, despite strong political commitments made at the three previous UN High-Level Meetings on NCDs, policy implementation has remained insufficient.
The upcoming UN High-Level Meeting is a pivotal global event for several reasons:
- As the first UN HLM since the COVID-19 pandemic, it marks a crucial step in rebuilding resilient health systems and serves as a foundation for shaping the post-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework.
- It is a critical opportunity to set bold targets, hold leaders accountable and drive meaningful change in healthcare systems worldwide that will promote universal access to CVD medicines and care.
- It will adopt a new ambitious Outcome Document on NCDs, which will serve as a roadmap for global CVD response between 2025 and 2030.
- It will link CVD and NCDs within the broader global health/ development agenda.
The World Heart Federation (WHF) advocates for a framework to accelerate the implementation and funding of evidence-based actions that will turn the tide of CVD.
Our Four Key Asks:
| COMMITMENT 1. A BOLD UN HLM 2025 POLITICAL DECLARATION ON NCDs | Our primary ask is to see a robust and inclusive Political Declaration on NCDs with a renewed commitment to action on implementation. |
| COMMITMENT 2. NATIONAL CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH PLANS | CVD is the leading cause of death globally and disproportionately affects those in low-income settings. Therefore, we call for all Heads of State to commit their countries to develop or strengthen National Cardiovascular Health Plans. |
| COMMITMENT 3. PRIORITISE IMPLEMENTATION | Since the first UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs, significant frameworks and targets have been established to combat non-communicable diseases. However, the lack of robust implementation and investment in UHC and NCD-specific systems has hindered global progress, making it unlikely that the ambitious targets will be met.
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| COMMITMENT 4. SUPPORT EVIDENCE BASED ACTIONS FOR CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
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The World Heart Federation advocates for extending the Global Action Plan on NCDs to 2050 with a strong emphasis on accountability and seeks new policy commitments, asserting that a 30% reduction in CVD incidence and mortality is attainable through effective, cost-efficient strategies. We call for evidence informed cardiovascular health actions across cardiovascular health promotion actions, cardiovascular care actions and cardiovascular patient and community actions.
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