Your Excellency, President of the UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock,
Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed,
President of the International Olympic Committee Kirsty Coventry,
Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management Movses Abelian,
President of ECOSOC Lok Bahadur Thapa,
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues and friends,
You heard the numbers from my sister Amina:
NCDs kill 43 million people a year. They account for seven of the world’s top 10 causes of death: cancers, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases.
In addition, more than 1 billion people face mental health conditions, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death among young people.
Every death is a tragedy, no matter the cause, but the younger the person, the more acute the tragedy.
Every year, NCDs kill 18 million people under the age of 70: people cut down in the prime of life from diseases that could be prevented or treated.
Imagine: that’s the population of Senegal, or the Netherlands, or Cambodia, Guatemala, or Zimbabwe, wiped out every single year.
NCDs and mental health conditions are preventable and treatable.
We have the knowledge. We have the tools.
What is needed is commitment, speed, and scale.
The Political Declaration before you is the strongest yet, with ambitious, measurable, and achievable targets.
I thank His Excellency Ambassador Olivier Maes of Luxembourg and Her Excellency Ambassador Inga Rhonda King of St Vincent and the Grenadines for leading the negotiations.
My thanks also to the President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, and her predecessor, Philemon Yang, for their leadership.
And I also recognize the many civil society organizations and people with lived experience who contributed to shaping this declaration. Your voices matter, and we hear them.
For the first time, mental health is fully integrated into a Political Declaration on NCDs.
It’s about time. In this declaration, you are committing to expanding access to services for mental health care.
But brick by brick, we must also tear down the walls of stigma that keep so many people trapped.
I urge all of us, especially those of us with the privilege of having a platform and a voice, to use those platforms and raise those voices to say that it’s okay not to be okay.
Mental health conditions are like any other condition – as common as a stomach ache, and that’s how we should see it.
Because there is no health without mental health.
Excellencies,
Words on paper must translate into sustained action and measurable impact.
Allow me to highlight three asks for the years ahead – three promises we can make and keep:
First, I ask all countries to increase investment in promoting health and preventing disease.
We must remember that health does not start in clinics and hospitals, it starts in homes, schools, streets and workplaces – in the food people eat, the products they consume, the water they drink, the air they breathe, and the conditions in which they live and work.
So the number one should be addressing the root causes and helping people to lead a healthy life.
Second, I ask all countries to integrate services for NCDs and mental health into primary health care, as the foundation of universal health coverage.
Every community should have trained health workers, affordable diagnostics, quality-assured essential medicines and health products, and continuity of care across the life course.
Third, I ask all countries to deliver equity through access and accountability.
That means making essential medicines and technologies available and affordable to all, with financing that reduces out-of-pocket costs.
It means tracking the targets transparently – through robust surveillance and regular reporting, so progress is visible, gaps are identified, and leaders are accountable.
And it means ensuring these transformations are guided by people with lived experience, civil society, and communities.
WHO stands ready to support all countries to implement the commitments you are making and achieve the targets you are setting.
As 2030 approaches, the clock is ticking - but our ambition must extend beyond 2030.
Premature death from NCDs and mental health conditions will remain defining challenges for health and development throughout this century.
Let this meeting be remembered not only for promises made, but for results delivered.
Above all, let’s remember the reason we’re in this room – for the people who are not.
The life of the 55-year-old who dies today with lung cancer, and the costs of treating her, could have been saved with tobacco taxes and marketing bans that made smoking less appealing or affordable.
The life of the 45-year-old who dies today with heart disease could have been saved if his hypertension had been diagnosed and managed with inexpensive medication;
The life of the 25-year-old who dies of suicide today could have been saved if her depression had been identified and treated.
They are what brings us here, and they are what drives us forward, with urgency, equity, and accountability.
I thank you.