Gender and NCDs: Moving from promises to progress

In the build-up to the United Nations High Level Meeting (UN HLM) on the Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, on 24th July 2025, global health advocates, researchers, and policymakers came together for a powerful and thought-provoking session hosted by The George Institute for Global Health to draw attention to the gender divide on NCDs. The event, titled “Meaningful Progress or Empty Promises?”, unpacked the findings of a recent policy analysis on how gender is integrated into national NCD action plans.

Setting the context

Deepika Saluja opened the session and emphasized the urgency of addressing NCDs, which kills two out of three women globally, accounting for up to 19 million deaths a year. Girls and women living with or at risk of developing NCDs experience unique challenges in accessing prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, and care, particularly in low-resource contexts, making it critical that gender-responsive policies are implemented.

In recognition of this, countries made commitments to take a gendered approach to NCD prevention and control at the first UN HLM on NCDs in 2011, which were reiterated and reaffirmed in the second HLM on NCDs in 2014 and third HLM on NCDs in 2018. The George Institute has consistently pushed for a gendered lens on NCD prevention and control and recently conducted a policy-level analysis to determine how gender is (or isn’t) integrated into national NCD action plans following the commitments made at previous meetings.

Key findings from the policy analysis

Bhanushree Soni and Inika Sharma presented the findings from this comprehensive analysis of 65 integrated, English-language NCD plans covering 89 countries. Using a five-point scale adapted from UNDP’s Gender Results Effectiveness Scale (gender negative, gender blind, gender-targeted, gender-responsive and gender-transformative), they assessed gender integration across four domains: objectives, strategies, monitoring & evaluation, and budgeting.

Key highlights included:
• Only one plan (2 percent) was classified as gender transformative. 17 percent were gender responsive.
• Nearly 22 percent of the plans were gender blind.
• Nearly half of the plans did not extend beyond 2025, raising concerns about long-term commitment.
• Budgeting for gender was notably absent in most plans, undermining implementation.

The presentation was followed by a power-packed panel discussion unpacking this analysis to understand the practical and ground realities at country levels, as well as the opportunities to strengthen advocacy on integrating gender into NCD program design and implementation. Moderated by Dr. Shakira Choonara of UN Women, the panel featured insights from: Dr. Catherine Karekezi (NCD Alliance Kenya); Dr. Magda Robalo (Women in Global Health); and Ms. Radhika Shrivastav (HRIDAY, Secretariat of Healthy India Alliance/India NCD Alliance).

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Women are still seen as reproductive bodies, and their broader health needs—especially in the context of NCDs—are invisible in policy and planning.

By:

Dr Magda Robalo

Women in Global Health

Key messages

The session underscored a sobering reality: despite over a decade of global commitments, gender remains largely absent or inadequately addressed in national NCD action plans. Only one out of 65 reviewed plans were found to be gender transformative, revealing a symbolic rather than structural approach to gender integration. Panelists emphasized that women’s health continues to be narrowly defined within reproductive health, sidelining broader health needs such as NCDs. This invisibility is compounded by systemic issues—women are often caregivers and frontline health workers, yet their contributions are undervalued and unrecognized in formal health strategies. The lack of gender-based budgeting and monitoring mechanisms further weakens accountability and implementation. A recurring theme was the need to move beyond tokenistic mentions of gender and instead embed it as a cross-cutting lens across all domains of policy—objectives, strategies, evaluation, and financing. The discussion also highlighted the importance of intersectionality, urging stakeholders to consider the diverse lived experiences of women, including those from marginalized and vulnerable groups, and to expand the gender lens beyond the binary to include men, boys, and gender-diverse populations.

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Women bear the brunt of NCDs—either as persons with lived experience, caregivers, or individuals without decision-making power over their own health.

By:

Dr Catherine Karekezi

NCD Alliance Kenya

Best practices and recommendations

Despite the challenges, the analysis and discussion surfaced several promising practices that offer hope and direction. Countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Namibia, and Saint Vincent were recognized for actively engaging women’s groups to shift social norms and promote healthier behaviours. Some Islamic nations, traditionally viewed as patriarchal, showed notable progress towards integrating gender into strategies and monitoring frameworks within their national plan. This might not have necessarily been translated into implementation yet, however, this shift still demonstrates that cultural context need not be a barrier to equity. The inclusion of gender equity training, disaggregated data collection, and collaboration with women’s organizations were cited as potentially transformative strategies in regions such as the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa.

These examples illustrate that meaningful change is possible when gender is treated as a structural determinant rather than a peripheral concern. Panelists also called for integrated approaches that link NCDs with broader health and development agendas, emphasizing that gender is both a health issue and a social justice imperative. The importance of co-creation with communities, investment in the care economy, and sustained advocacy at national and sub-national levels were highlighted as essential steps toward building equitable and responsive health systems.

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We must reach out to program planners and policymakers to ensure lived experience is embedded in the plan—not just words, but words that drive action.

By:

Ms Radhika Shrivastav

HRIDAY, Secretariat of Healthy India Alliance/India NCD Alliance

Looking ahead

As we approach the 4th UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs, the findings from this policy analysis demand urgent and coordinated action. The clear calls to action that came out from this discussion included:

• Embedding gender across all policy domains,
• Investing in gender-based budgeting,
• Centring lived experiences within policy design,
• Expanding the gender lens beyond the binary and incorporating intersectional experiences, and
• Strengthen civil society participation and accountability.

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We are not only off track to achieve gender equality—we are also falling short of meeting Sustainable Development Goal 3 on health. These two agendas are deeply interconnected, and unless gender equity is embedded at the core of NCD responses, we risk failing both. The time to align our commitments with meaningful, measurable action is now.

By:

Dr Shakira Choonara

UN Women

The George Institute encouraged continued engagement through the Taskforce on Women and NCDs and announced that the analysis findings will be part of a full paper analysing 13 equity factors across NCD plans.

This blog is authored by Deepika Saluja, with inputs from Ms Bhanushree Soni, Ms. Emma Feeny, Ms. Radhika Shrivastava, Dr Shakira Choonara, Dr Catherine Karekezi, Dr Magda Robalo & Ms. Inika Sharma.