Voices of the Health Revolution

One in four dementia deaths, those of 626,000 people, is caused by air pollution. That shocking statistic is one of the findings of the  2025 State of Global Air report , which we’re discussing in this episode. Last year’s report is the first to examine the impact of air pollution on brain health, including how it affects neurodevelopment and mental health. Our guests are Dr Burcin Ikiz, a ne...

In this episode we learn about a partnership that is successfully addressing the deadliest form of cancer affecting women — breast cancer. Since it began in 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Breast Cancer Initiative has aimed to reduce breast cancer by 2.5% per year. Over a 20-year period achieving that would save 2.5 million lives. Dr. Mary Nyangasi, WHO’s Technical Lead for the pr...

In this episode of  Voices of the Health Revolution , Gina Sanchez speaks with Dr Téa Collins from the World Health Organization and Tamara Schudel from Roche about the WHO Young Researchers Programme — a global initiative strengthening research capacity in low- and middle-income countries to tackle noncommunicable diseases and mental health challenges. The conversation explores how empowerin...

Hon Jahnel Nisbett says she knew her government’s awareness-raising on NCDs was working when a schoolgirl corrected the Sweet Potato Pie recipe that she was reading out to the girl’s class. “No —that’s too much sugar!” she exclaimed. The Caribbean island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis has the third highest NCDs mortality rate in the Americas,  according to the Pan American Health Organizatio...

The guests in this episode are Liz Arnanz Daugan, Policy and Advocacy Manager at NCD Alliance, and Owen Jackson, Director of Policy at Cancer Research UK (CRUK). They chat about the leadership role that civil society, including organisations like CRUK, plays in bringing about policy changes to create healthier environments. Examples in the UK include new legislation to create the first ever smokel...

In this episode we’re speaking about leadership with the new President of the NCD Alliance Board of Directors, Leslie Rae Ferat, in the context of the huge challenges posed by the upcoming High-Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health (HLM4). Also Executive Director of the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control, Leslie received a Luther L. Terry Award at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health in J...

This is a special episode of the show. Earlier this year, on the sidelines of the Global NCDA Forum in Rwanda, Dr Mohammed M Seyam and Maleeqah Karriem recorded one of a series of Leadership Dialogues created for NCDA's Time to Lead campaign. In the conversation, they share insights into their NCD advocacy journeys — and why they are speaking up not only for themselves, but also for their communit...

Fiscal policies for the NCD response go beyond taxes on harmful products like tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Kenya has recently applied a two percent levy on all tobacco products manufactured or imported into the country. It will be a “game changer” says one of the guests on today’s episode, Celine Awuor, CEO of the International Institute for Legislative Affairs. On the other ha...

After working together for years addressing cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) at city level, colleagues at C/Can and Roche looked back at the high and low points of their partnership. Each organisation then decided independently that it was time to create a framework to help structure their multisector collaboration and share their learnings with others interested in partnerships. T...

La Alianza de ENT lanzó en 2024 el Llamamiento a liderar las ENT como una herramienta esencial de sensibilización, instando a todos los gobiernos a avanzar en sus compromisos en la prevención y control de ENT. Hace un llamado a los líderes mundiales a tomar decisiones efectivas en la próxima Reunión de Alto Nivel de la ONU sobre la prevención y control de ENT y la promoción de la salud mental y el...

Today we’re speaking with Anu Gomanju and Edith Mukantwari, advocates for strengthening the global response to NCDs and both themselves living with NCDs. Anu works with the NCDI Poverty Network as well as patient and family organizations such as the Global Alliance for Rheumatic and Congenital Hearts, while Edith is Executive Director of the Africa Diabetes Alliance. Both our guests stress that th...

In this episode, we’re looking ahead to UHC Day, on December 12. The 2024 theme is Health: it’s on the government! UHC of course stands for Universal Health Coverage, and today we’re talking about financing for UHC and its relationship to NCDs financing. Our guest is Professor David Watkins, of the departments of Medicine and Global Health at the University of Washington. We will delve into issues...

In this episode we’re talking about oral health and noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, with Dr Greg Chadwick, President of FDI World Dental Federation, and Dr Dympna Kavanagh, Chief Dental Officer for the Republic of Ireland. What they both stress in today’s chat is how the adoption in 2021 of a World Health Assembly resolution flipped the way that most people thought of oral health—primarily as s...

Jamaica and other Caribbean countries are known for their leadership in advocating globally for action on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Jamaica Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Christopher Tufton explains how and why in this episode of the NCD Alliance podcast, Voices of the health revolution . One notable success he singled out is Jamaica Moves, a programme to encourage the general public t...

In July, NCD Alliance published  The Call To Lead open letter  which serves as a crucial advocacy tool, urging all governments to fulfil their commitments to address the burden of NCDs. It calls on Member States to take decisive action at the Fourth UN High-level Meeting on NCDs in September 2025. Open to civil society endorsement, including both organisations and individuals, this sign-on letter...

This is our third episode on the theme of leadership and the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs (UNHLM). It features the voices of youth working to address the noncommunicable disease (NCD) emergency. “It’s really important to talk about who has the power to make decisions,” said physician Apoorva Gomber, who acted as host. All the guests agreed that youth are already acting as leaders globally bu...

The World Bank is co-hosting the Second global dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health, 20-21 June 2024, in Washington DC. Ahead of the meeting we spoke with Dr Monique Vledder, Practice Manager of the Global Health, Nutrition and Population Unit at the Bank. She stressed the importance of World Bank President Ajay Banga declaring in April that the Bank intended to reach 1.5 b...

In this episode of Voices of the health revolution we hear about two sources of leadership that will be key as the global NCD community works toward the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs. Not surprisingly, the three speakers all point to people living with NCDs as uniquely qualified to spearhead progress. “We are not just key stakeholders but we hold a very unique expertise… that no other expert...

Prevention is better than cure, and this couldn’t be truer when it comes to noncommunicable diseases. In this podcast, Dr Monika Arora, President of NCD Alliance and Executive Director of HRIDAY shares the facts about NCD prevention and how governments can show true leadership in protecting the health of their populations by implementing tried-and-true policies and programmes. She also shines a sp...

We often hear that mental health is neglected in part because of the stubborn stigma associated with living with a mental health condition in many — if not most — parts of the world. In an attempt to spotlight this neglected topic, in this episode we speak with two advocates for mental health, one based in Africa the other in South-east Asia. Charity Muturi and Yves Zuniga discuss if mental health...

The number of people displaced by natural disasters, conflict and other factors continues to grow. In 2023, 299 million people needed humanitarian assistance and protection, (10% more than at the end of 2022, according to the Global Humanitarian Overview 2024). Many of them are living with noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs, but until recently their specific needs were virtually ignored in planning...

Small island developing states (SIDS) are being battered by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). In response, a series of events were organised in recent years to examine SIDS’ current situation and needs. The latest of these was the SIDS Ministerial Conference, held in Barbados in June. Strategic guidance for the Conference was provided by a policy expert group co-chaired by Sir George Alleyne and Si...

The Global Week for Action on NCDs is a major event on the annual calendar of the NCD community worldwide. In 2023 it takes place from 14 to 21 September. This year’s theme is Bridging the care gap, and in this episode of Voices of the Health Revolution, Grace Dubois from NCD Alliance explains why this year’s event is all about care. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is key to the approach: the UN H...

Since we recorded this episode in June 2023, Bayalpata Hospital management has learned that its funding for the current fiscal year, which started in July, is in doubt. Management signed a five-year agreement with the provincial government in 2022 but now officials say that there is no legal mechanism to transfer money to the hospital. A committee has been set up to look into this and a report is...

In recent decades growing attention has been paid to how the social and environmental conditions in which we live— such as air quality (environmental) and income (social) — affect our health. These are known as social and environmental determinants of health. Now a spotlight has been turned on commercial determinants of health, thanks to a new series in The Lancet. Today we’re chatting with three...