Calls for more resources to address non-communicable diseases (NCDs), higher taxes on unhealthy products and the decriminalisation of suicide were made at a multi-stakeholder hearing at the United Nations (UN) on Friday.

The hearing was convened by UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang to enable stakeholders to identify priorities to address NCDs ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on these diseases set for 25 September.

Seventy percent of deaths are caused by NCDs, as unhealthy diets, lack of exercise, smoking, air pollution, and poor mental health take their toll globally.

Yet only 19 countries are on track to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one-third by 2030.

“The last decade has been coined as a policy success, but an implementation failure. This HLM has to change this, renewing commitments to cost-effective policies that we know work to reduce the risk factors and improve access to care,” Katie Dain, CEO of the NCD Alliance, told the hearing.

After months of intense civil society mobilisation, the NCD Alliance issued a Call to Lead on NCDs this week, signed by over 500 civil society organisations and backed by 2.5 million people.

“This High-Level Meeting must address the glaring mismatch between the scale of the burden of NCDs and the level of funding,” said Dain. “We urge governments to increase sustainable financing for NCDs by adopting specific and measurable financing targets for NCDs and improving financing data and tracking, as well as committing to health taxes that have a triple win of raising revenue, improving health outcomes and reducing long-term healthcare costs.”

Dain also called on governments to protect health policy from “undue influence and health of health-harming industries: big tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods and fossil fuels”.

‘Elephant in the room’: Harmful industries

Youth speaker Stephanie Whiteman described the impact of harmful industries as the “elephant in the room” during the hearing’s opening.

“The unhealthy food environments, aggressive marketing of ultra-processed products, tobacco use, alcohol use, and digital platforms that amplify harmful messages all shape our health outcomes, including mental health,” said Whiteman, who is part of the Global Mental Health Action Network and a Vital Strategies fellow.

“To tackle these determinants, we must enact and enforce policies that tax and restrict unhealthy products, require clear front-of-package warning labels, restrict marketing to children and regulate industries through conflict of interest safeguards,” urged Whiteman, who is from the West Indies.

“A young person today is more likely to die by suicide than at the previous High Level Meeting,” Whiteman noted, urging the 25 countries that still criminalise suicide and suicide attempts to change this “immediately”. 

“We should be helping persons at their lowest, not punishing them. Every country should have a suicide prevention plan based on WHO’s Live Life approach.”

Several other speakers called for the decriminalisation of suicide, including in India, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, accounting for  40% of global suicides among women and 25% among men.

Address gender gap and taxes

Magda Robalo, executive director of Women in Global Health, reminded the hearing that women and girls “face the steepest barriers to NCD prevention, diagnosis and care, and the heaviest pressures leading to mental stress”, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

“In Africa, only one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer survives beyond five years, a stark contrast to high-income settings,” said Robalo, who warned against “a dangerous rollback on health rights, amplified by misinformation, shrinking civic space and weakened accountability”. 

Robalo called on governments to “embed gender equity and financial protection in universal health coverage design”.

Vital Strategies CEO Dr Mary-Ann Etiebet urged countries to impose taxes on harmful products: “The Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health has shown that increasing the price of tobacco, alcohol and sugary beverages by just 50% could save 50 million lives over 50 years. 

“Such taxes could generate $3.7 trillion globally in just five years, and if these revenues were directed towards health, we could boost healthcare budgets 40% in low and middle-income countries,” said Etiebet.

Undue influence on political declaration?

A “zero-draft” of the political declaration to be adopted by the HLM is expected to be released this month, with member state negotiations due to end in July.

However, NCD advocates have told Health Policy Watch that they are concerned about how harmful industries – including the big food, alcohol and fossil fuel industries – are attempting to influence content of the declaration.

The NCD Alliance is advocating for “a concise, high-level, and political outcome document that galvanises heads of government and state to action, leadership, and ownership of the NCD response through time-bound commitments and tangible targets free from industry interference from health-harming sectors”.

‘Nothing about us without us’

Meanwhile, Lucía Feito Alonca of International Diabetes Federation challenged member states to include communities and people living with NCDs in their decision-making 

“If we truly want to build stronger health systems and achieve universal self coverage, we must listen to those who live with these conditions every single day. That means putting people at the centre of care, ” said Alonca, who lives with diabetes.

“We don’t want to be included at the last minute or just as a formality. We want to be part of the process from the beginning, helping shape policies, signing services and evaluating results, because we are the experts in living with these conditions.

“My question to all of you is: Are you ready to share power, or just space? Because nothing about us should ever be decided without us.”