Elevating Childhood Cancer and Catastrophic Diseases in the Global NCD Agenda: Joint Call to Action

Global NCD Agenda Must Prioritize Childhood Cancer and Catastrophic Diseases

Response to the 2025 Zero Draft Political Declaration of Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs and the Promotion of Mental Health and Wellbeing

As the world prepares for the Fourth High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on NCDs and Mental Health, and negotiations on the Zero Draft Political Declaration gain momentum, there is a critical and urgent imperative to ensure that children and adolescents living with chronic and catastrophic diseases, especially childhood cancers and blood disorders, are no longer left behind.

NCDs are a silent crisis affecting over 2 billion children and adolescents, 1 and threatening the achievement of SDG 3.4 target on NCDs and mental health and 3.2 target on under-5 mortality. Whereas the Zero Draft notes the UN Secretary General’s report on “Progress on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being,” it fails to explicitly acknowledge childhood cancer in this high-level document, even while the cited 2025 report acknowledges a persisting disparity: “Each year, about 400,000 children develop cancer, with those in lower-income countries far less likely to receive a diagnosis.”

Globally, the majority of children and adolescents live in settings of social and health disparity and many lack access to timely multidisciplinary care. This leads to nearly 1 million preventable child and adolescent deaths annually, contributing significantly to premature mortality and undermining global progress on health equity. This policy gap contradicts the commitment made in General Assembly resolution 70/1 (the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development) to leave no one behind and reach the furthest behind first. Excluding children and adolescents affected by NCDs undermines the people-centred, life-course approach central to NCD prevention and control and jeopardizes our ability to meet equity and survival targets.

While the Zero Draft acknowledges the substantial return on investment in the WHO ‘Best Buys’, it is imperative to note that childhood cancer diagnosis and multi-disciplinary care are an integral part of the WHO Best Buys, and as such are a strategic entry point and indicator of progress towards NCD targets, particularly NCDs in children. As the negotiation process on the Zero Draft to the political declaration builds momentum we call upon Member States to advocate for the explicit inclusion of children and adolescents with chronic NCDs and catastrophic diseases in the global NCD agenda.

It’s time to act; these children and adolescents cannot be left behind in the prevention and control of NCDs and promotion of mental health and well-being.

We thereby propose a new paragraph 34 in the Zero Draft Declaration to contribute to fast-tracking progress on NCDs and mental health over the next five years:

Include children with catastrophic diseases like sickle cell into the NCDs agenda and achieve the childhood cancer survival target of at least 60% globally by 2030, as set out by the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC), while increasing wellbeing and reducing inequities, and scaling up cost-effective childhood cancer interventions into national health benefit packages.