The Defeat-NCD Partnership

Launched as a ‘public-private-people’ partnership at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York on 24th September 2018 with the strong support of the World Health Organization, The Defeat-NCD Partnership was set up as the practical response to the widespread call for action on non-communicable diseases (NCD). The Partnership envisions universal health coverage for NCD.  To achieve that, the Partnership’s core mission focuses on assisting low resource countries to scale-up action on NCD through: (i) national capacity building; (ii) community scale-up of NCD services; (iii) affordability and accessibility of essential NCD supplies; and (iv) financing for country-level NCD programming.

The Defeat-NCD Partnership has been hosted by the United Nations since its original set up, with an international mandate to include governments, multilateral agencies, civil society, academia, philanthropies, and the private sector. In 2023 it has been established as an independent organization headquartered in Geneva, in accordance with Articles 60 et sequent of the Swiss Civil Code.

The Partnership’s current strategy’s timeframe is up to 2030 as that is the universally agreed period for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Partnership’s efforts are aimed specifically at SDG 3.4 i.e. the reduction by one-third of premature mortality from NCD through prevention and treatment.

NCD and poverty are strongly inter-connected and the SDGs also drive the Partnership’s principal values, especially that of equity through aiming to “leave no one behind” and proactively reaching out to the most needy and vulnerable.