Despite being responsible for three-quarters of global deaths and placing a growing socioeconomic burden on governments worldwide, noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, continue to receive only around 1%-2% of global financing investment for health.
Progress in closing the NCD funding gap has been limited, despite numerous high-level United Nations meetings on the issue, with the economic impact of COVID-19 further hindering efforts, said Cary Adams, CEO of the Union for International Cancer Control.
“There's a general acceptance across global health that NCDs and cancer were missed out in the [Millennium Development Goals],” explained Adams. “They are in the [Sustainable Development Goals], but the mechanisms of support are still very much focused on malaria, TB, HIV, and AIDS.”