Mr. President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, RADA represents the secretariat of the Cameroon NCD Alliance, a coalition of civil society organisations with a mission to ensure a collective voice for NCDs at home and abroad.

First, we align strongly with the Call to Lead on NCDs and the eight (8) Africa NCDs Network HLM advocacy priorities including priority 2 on strengthening political commitment and leadership highlighting the need to fast track national commitments to NCDs through strong leadership, ensuring inclusive decision-making with people living with NCDs and civil society.

Less than 25 African countries have a national NCD policy /action plan. Political will is clearly lacking here in prioritising NCDS in line with regional and global trends, where 75% of global deaths are woefully due to NCDs.

The growing phenomenon of the economic argument, which removes the health from the economics, has paved the way for unwarranted industry interference, exchanging short-term, seemingly economic gains for virtually planned long-term incapacitation if it is not immediately mitigated.

Given that everyone is affected by NCDs regardless of our levels of political engagement, we urge member states to:

1. Consider prioritizing the implementation of WHO Best Buys.
2. Invest in developing Investment Cases to reflect sound economic human capital gains in NCD prevention and control.
3. Support community engagement and adequately value the power of lived experience especially across the most vulnerable groups.

The lack of policies betrays the presence of political will. We cannot hold high-level political meetings with few policies in place. As Civil Society, we join our voices to call for real engagement by policy makers, as the majority of the cost-effective interventions need the signature of a pen for implementation, and all lie in the hands of our policy makers.