World health Organization’s guidance for tracking non-communicable diseases towards sustainable development goals 3.4: an initiative for facility-based monitoring

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for over 60% of annual global deaths, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries. This trend undermines progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4, which seeks to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one-third by 2030. Despite the availability of effective and relatively affordable interventions, addressing NCDs requires sustained, coordinated efforts and robust monitoring systems. Facility-based monitoring offers a dynamic alternative to static surveys, enabling continuous assessment of healthcare quality and utilization. Methods: This study followed a systematic approach to develop standardized global and national NCD monitoring indicators, using the Donabedian model as a conceptual framework. It focused on four major NCD categories: hypertension and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and cancers. The methodology…