PHSSR Policy Roadmaps for Acting Early on NCDs Synthesis Report 2025

11 Acting early on NCDs The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilienceover outcomes. The pandemic demonstrated health systems’ capacity for rapid change when compelled. Similar resolve is now needed for early action on NCDs, where delays lock in decades of avoidable burden. Performance differences within and between countries show that improvement is feasible with existing knowledge and resources. Systems that shift investment and emphasis toward prevention, risk-stratified detection, shorter diagnostic pathways, and integrated chronic care can bend the trajectory of disease burden despite ageing populations. Those that delay will entrench inequity and escalate future costs. The choice is between preserving late intervention or advancing structural reform that achieves earlier, coordinated, and equitable care. The path forward demands political courage, sustained commitment, and recognition that acting early is not only cost-effective but morally imperative.