About Us

The Partnership

The Partnership was born from the recognition that NCDs are now the major contributor to the global burden of disease. They kill at least 40 million people each year, the equivalent to 70% of all deaths globally. Each year, there are 15 million “premature” deaths (i.e. below the age of 70 years) from NCDs. Continuing with business as usual will increase this by a third by 2030. NCDs are not just medical problems. They have huge personal, social, and economic impacts and their rising prevalence is a serious setback for human and national development.

With the strong support of the World Health Organization, The Defeat-NCD Partnership was launched at the United Nations during the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York on 24th September 2018 as a “public private people” partnership to enable and assist all low-resource countries to scale-up action on Non-Communicable Diseases (“NCD”) through: (i) national capacity building, (ii) community scale-up of NCD services, (iii) affordability and accessibility of essential NCD supplies, and (iv) financing for country-level NCD programming.

The Defeat-NCD Partnership’s Secretariat has been hosted by the United Nations (most recently at UNITAR during 2019-2022) since its original set-up as the practical response to the widespread call for action on NCD. The Defeat-NCD Partnership is an independent, tax exempted association, with an international mandate, registered in Geneva, Switzerland, in accordance with Articles 60 et sequents of the Swiss Civil Code.

The purpose of the Partnership is to promote health by enabling and assisting countries to scale-up sustained action against NCDs, so as to advance sustainable development as envisaged by the United Nations through the SDGs and their successors.

The Partnership has a not-for profit making purpose.

Our Vision



Our vision is that of a world in which there is universal health coverage for NCDs. This is a direct contribution to the transformational 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to which all nations have subscribed.

Our Mission

Our mission is to enable and assist lower-income and lesser developed countries to scale-up sustained action against NCDs so that they can progress on SDG 3 “ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages” and, more specifically, to achieve target 3.4 to “reduce, by one-third, premature mortality from NCDs by 2030″. Accordingly, the priority focus of The Defeat-NCD Partnership is on the 49 least-developed and low-income countries with technical capacity building support also available to a further 43 lower-middle income countries.