Princess Ghida calls on world leaders to take immediate against NCDs

HRH Princess Ghida Talal, chairperson of the board of trustees of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF), on Monday joined world leaders in calling for urgent and immediate action on non-communicable diseases (NCD) to save millions of lives globally. His Majesty King Abdullah appointed Princess Ghida to represent Jordan as his special envoy to the UN General Assembly’s September 19-20 High Level Meeting on NCDs, according to a KHCF statement. In her speech, Princess Ghida called on world leaders and heads of governments to take immediate action against NCDs. “I urge all present here today to take action now, before we have a catastrophe of epic proportions on our hands. It is not a choice or an option. We in Jordan are committed to this meeting’s Political Declaration and to implementing one national framework for NCD risk factors control.” The meeting, the first of its kind on NCDs to be held at the United Nations, came at a crucial time as these diseases have long been overlooked, the statement said. NCDs, which include cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory illnesses, are responsible for 36 million deaths annually worldwide, 80 per cent of which occur in developing countries. HRH Princess Dina Mired, director general of the KHCF, also addressed the meeting on behalf of civil society, highlighting the importance of facing up to the NCD epidemic and urging the General Assembly to muster the political will that is required to combat NCDs effectively. “Governments must own responsibility and lead on this matter. Their efforts should be paralleled by funding and support from the global community,” she noted. The aim of the High Level Meeting on NCDs is for countries to adopt a concise action-oriented Political Declaration on NCDs that will shape the international health agenda for generations to come. The KHCF and the King Hussein Cancer Centre gathered over 45,000 signatures as part of a million signatures worldwide campaign to endorse the World Cancer Declaration. The petition will be presented to world leaders during the UN General Assembly’s High Level Meeting to significantly reduce the global cancer burden by 2020.