Webinar | UNGA 2025: Unpacking the political economy of non-communicable diseases
Together with People’s Health Movement (PHM), Third World Network (TWN) and G2H2
📅 Thursday, 9 October 2025 | 02.00 PM CEST
📍 Online
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) — such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases — remain among the greatest global health challenges. In 2021 alone, NCDs caused at least 43 million deaths, representing 75% of all non-pandemic-related mortality worldwide (WHO). The burden, however, is deeply unequal: developing countries account for 82% of these deaths.
High-cost medicines and care further strain already fragile public health systems, reinforcing inequities in access within and across countries. At the same time, transnational corporations driving the tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed food industries fuel the epidemic.
At the 2025 UN General Assembly, Member States considered the Political Declaration on NCDs, to be approved in October 2025, and which will shape a UN Roadmap beyond 2030. This moment offers countries a chance to confront the blind spots of previous frameworks: the absence of strong regulatory measures to curb harmful industries, the persistent barriers to equitable access to medicines and technologies created by intellectual property and trade rules, the inadequate scale of commitments on financing and universal health coverage, and, at the core, the continued reliance on voluntarism rather than binding obligations, a pattern that risks entrenching inequities and weak accountability.
This panel discussion, jointly convened by G2H2, TWN and PHM, will take a critical political economy lens to unpack the declaration and assess its implications.
The panel will feature key voices from civil society and academia:
- Nicoletta Dentico, Society for International Development
- Fran Baum, University of Adelaide
- T. Sundaraman, People’s Health Movement
- Patti Rundall, International Baby Food Action Network
- K.M. Gopakumar, Third World Network, moderator
