WMA _15.1_NCD high level meeting_final

THE WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, INC.
L’ASSOCIATION MEDICALE MONDIALE, INC
ASOCIACION MEDICA MUNDIAL, INC
Centre International de Bureaux FEIN : 13-2566243
Immeuble A « Keynes » Website : www.wma.net Postal Address :
13, chemin du Levant Telephone : (33) 4 50 40 75 75 Boîte Postale 63
01210 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE Fax : (33) 4 50 40 59 37 01210 FERNEY-VOLTAIRE Cedex
France E-mail address : wma@wma.net France
22 May 2017

70th Session of the World Health Assembly
Agenda Item: 15.1: Preparation for the third High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the
Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, to be held in 2018

Honorable Chairperson, Distinguished Delegates,

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the World Medical Association, which
represents more than 9 million physicians in over 100 countries.

As physicians and health advocates, we are quite concerned with the rapidly grown prevalence of
non-communicable diseases worldwide and their health, social and economic implications.

We appreciate the great effort that is carried out by WHO to tackle this major issue. WMA
welcome another high-level meeting on NCDs and we hope that there will be further progress
toward implementing the time-bound national commitments by the Member States to better
control this global health burden.

The WMA believes that physicians involvement in the prevention and control of NCDs is crucial to
achieve concrete measurable results and expand the national capacity of each country. Therefore,
we call for Member States to involve their physicians and other health professionals in setting and
achieving their national targets, commitments and health promotion programs.

WMA is glad to see that health care system strengthening is an important part of WHO’s strategy
in the fight against NCDs, together with a multisectoral response on national and global levels by
considering the sustainable development goals and universal health coverage factors. Such
approach is a critical strategy to monitor and control NCDs and their risk factors.

In 2011, through the World Health Professions Alliance, we released a health improvement card to
help individuals and their healthcare professionals to reduce the risk of NCDs and since then we
continued to work with our National Medical Associations and other stakeholders to prevent and
relieve the burden of NCDs and address the social determinants of health.

The WMA is committed to tackle NCDs and is ready to support WHO in the preparation process for
the upcoming high level UN meeting and other conferences.

Thank you for your kind attention.

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