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UN PhotoUNGA80 / NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES MENTAL HEALTH
STORY: UNGA80 / NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES MENTAL HEALTH
TRT: 03:50
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Widel shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
25 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly:
“NCDs are the leading cause of human mortality. 43 million dead in 2021 alone, equivalent to 75 percent of all non-pandemic related deaths. That’s nearly 20 million people dying of heart disease. Ten million succumbing to cancer. The good news is that, by their very nature, most NCDs are preventable, treatable, or even both. Lifestyle choices, particularly around tobacco and alcohol use, diet, and physical activity, all help to prevent NCDs.”
4. Wide shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly:
“While mental health conditions affect nearly one billion people worldwide, it remains chronically underfunded. Globally, mental health expenditure averages Two US dollars per year per capita, this falls to less than 25 cents in low-income countries. Many allocate less than one percent of their health budgets to mental health.”
6. Wide shot, conference room dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Amina J. Mohamed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Every two seconds, someone under the age of 70 dies from a noncommunicable disease. In this past year alone, over 43 million lives of all ages were lost to NCDs - the largest cause of global deaths. Mental health conditions affect over one billion people worldwide, and suicide remains among the leading causes of death for young people. 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. These figures are not only statistics. They represent lives shortened, livelihoods taken away, and communities that are held back. They remind us that NCDs and mental health conditions are among the greatest public health and development challenges of our time.”
8. Wide shot, conference room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“NCDs and mental health conditions are preventable and treatable. We have the knowledge and we have the tools. What's needed is commitment, speed, and scale. The political declaration before you is the strongest yet with ambitious, measurable, and achievable targets.”
10. Wide shot, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Words on paper must translate into sustained action and measurable impact. Allow me to highlight three asks what do the years ahead. Three promises we can make and keep. First, I ask all countries to increase investment in promoting health and preventing disease. We must remember that health does not start in clinics and hospitals. It starts in homes, schools, streets, and workplaces. In the food people eat, the products they consume, the water they drink, the air they breathe, and the conditions in which they live and work.”
12. Wide shot, conference room dais
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Let this meeting be remembered not only for promises made, but for results delivered. Above all, let's remember the reason we are in this room; for the people who are not.”
14. Wide shot, conference room, applause
World Health Organization (WHO) Chief, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus today (25 Sep) said the political declaration on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health conditions is “the strongest yet with ambitious, measurable and achievable targets,” but cautioned that “words on paper must translate into sustained action and measurable impact.”
Opening the High-level meeting on the issue, the President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock said, “NCDs are the leading cause of human mortality. 43 million dead in 2021 alone, equivalent to 75 percent of all non-pandemic related deaths. That’s nearly 20 million people dying of heart disease. Ten million succumbing to cancer. The good news is that, by their very nature, most NCDs are preventable, treatable, or even both. Lifestyle choices, particularly around tobacco and alcohol use, diet, and physical activity, all help to prevent NCDs.”
Baerbock said, “while mental health conditions affect nearly one billion people worldwide, it remains chronically underfunded. Globally, mental health expenditure averages Two US dollars per year per capita, this falls to less than 25 cents in low-income countries. Many allocate less than one percent of their health budgets to mental health.”
Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed, for her part said, “every two seconds, someone under the age of 70 dies from a noncommunicable disease. In this past year alone, over 43 million lives of all ages were lost to NCDs - the largest cause of global deaths.”
Mental health conditions, Mohamed continued, “affect over one billion people worldwide, and suicide remains among the leading causes of death for young people. 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.”
These figures, she said, “are not only statistics. They represent lives shortened, livelihoods taken away, and communities that are held back. They remind us that NCDs and mental health conditions are among the greatest public health and development challenges of our time.”
Dr. Tedros said, “NCDs and mental health conditions are preventable and treatable. We have the knowledge and we have the tools. What's needed is commitment, speed, and scale.”
He “we must remember that health does not start in clinics and hospitals. It starts in homes, schools, streets, and workplaces. In the food people eat, the products they consume, the water they drink, the air they breathe, and the conditions in which they live and work.”
Dr. Tedros said, “let this meeting be remembered not only for promises made, but for results delivered. Above all, let's remember the reason we are in this room; for the people who are not.”
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