Health Beyond the Clinic: Integrating Action on Determinants into NCD Policy and Advocacy

Each year, NCDs cause 43 million deaths and cost the global economy trillions of dollars, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries and vulnerable populations worldwide. Effectively curbing the growing burden of these diseases will require addressing the underlying drivers of health inequity: entrenched economic structures, market forces, inadequate social protection, systemic discrimination, and global threats such as climate change.

An effective response to NCDs requires comprehensive reforms that reshape the environments in which people live. This means reducing exposure to key risk factors—tobacco use, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and air pollution—while strengthening people’s ability to access quality care in a timely manner.

Following the UN High-Level Dialogue on the Determinants of Health (July 2025), the Fourth UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health (September 2025), and the World Summit for Social Development (November 2025), and in the lead-up to the anticipated WHO strategy on the economics of health for all, this webinar provided a platform to explore how national policies and advocacy can better address the determinants of health—and how the NCD community can help drive these essential changes.