The burden is great and the money little: Changing chronic disease management in low– and middle–income countries

www.jogh.org • doi: 10.7189/jogh.02.020301 1 December 2012 • Vol. 2 No. 2 • 020301 Agenda item 117 of the 66 th session of the United Nations General Assembly was a watershed for global health. It marked the adoption by the General Assembly on the 16 of September 2011 of the political declaration of the High–level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases [1]. The adoption placed non-communicable diseases (NCDs) center stage for global health. To reach that point required a significant amount of scientific and political effort, first to convene the High–level Meeting on NCDs, and then to have the declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly. The historical time–line leading up to this achievement is punctuated by reflective pieces in a number of journals, but dominated by a series in The Lancet [2-8].