Excellencies,
Honorable Ministers,
Members of the diplomatic corps,
Dear partners, colleagues and friends,
It is a privilege to welcome you to UNFPA, and to have so many distinguished guests join us on the eve of the General Debate and the High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases – seminal moments for global health.
On Thursday, Heads of State will converge at the UN General Assembly to adopt a new Political Declaration, setting an ambitious vision for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being.
This is our chance to integrate NCD prevention and care within sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health. It’s a chance to ensure that women and girls can claim their right to safe, continuous, and comprehensive care throughout their lives.
We have made some important gains. For example, over the past two decades, the world has achieved a 40 per cent decline in maternal mortality.
Yet, even as the share of maternal deaths from obstetric complications is declining in many places, the proportion of deaths from indirect causes is on the rise – currently accounting for more than a quarter of maternal deaths worldwide.
Non-communicable diseases are driving this worrying trend. They are directly responsible for 45 per cent of all deaths among women of reproductive age, threatening a woman’s ability to have a safe pregnancy and undermining her sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Addressing non-communicable diseases in women requires an integrated, life-course approach to women’s health that also tackles gender bias and social inequalities.
A woman’s health cannot be divided up into acronyms or silos. Her health is holistic and follows a continuum – from adolescence, through the reproductive years, and into older age. Our duty is to provide care that is comprehensive, continuous and rights-based.
The life-course approach is the guiding principle behind UNFPA’s new reproductive, maternal and newborn health and well-being strategy, "Start With Her."
Throughout your discussions and deliberations this week, I ask that you stand united with her and prioritize her health and well-being.
We have a critical window of opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to women’s health and tackle non-communicable diseases – one of the most pressing public health crises.
Let’s get this done for her. Let’s get this done for our common future.
Thank you. Merci.
