Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis
The UN High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on NCDs in September, 2011, provides an unrivalled opportunity to create a sustained rights-based global movement to tackle NCDs, analogous to the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV infection and AIDS a decade ago, which concluded that dealing with the disease was central to the development agenda. Political leadership at the highest level, with international coordination and consensus for priority actions and interventions are crucial responses to the crisis in NCDs and to facilitate national action (Robert Beaglehole et al., April 2011).