The NCD Alliance was incredibly well represented with a large percentage of the attendees being part of the Alliance, members of the Common Interest Group or involved through the numerous working groups established in the last six months. When Ann Keeling, Chair of the NCD Alliance and IDF CEO, asked attendees to raise their hands if they were involved with the NCDA and its activities, over half the participants did so.
The day opened with a speech from the President of the UN General Assembly, HE Mr Joseph Deiss. We later we found out that he was impressed with the number of attendees which he considered to be well above the norm for such meetings and we believe there were 60 member states represented which shows a high level of commitment.
Then came a speech by HRH Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, the Director-General of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation and UICC Ambassador, who spoke on behalf of civil society. She emphasized what was required from the Summit in order for it to be considered a success and talked of her own family and country experience in addressing cancer in Jordan. In her opening remarks, Princess Dina Mired thanked the NCD Alliance for its civil society campaign over the last two-and-a-half years, calling for a global response to the NCD epidemic and steering towards the goal of a successful high-level meeting.