Cancer is widespread. It is the second-leading cause of death and disability in the world, behind only heart disease. More people die from cancer every year around the world than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Still cancer and other chronic diseases are often not effectively recognized or targeted in systematic fashion at the national level, especially where resources are scarce or skewed towards other areas. The international health community has identified this challenge already, but the global community still needs to act. The Young Global Leaders in World Economic Forum is working with the Global Redesign Initiative, and one of our taskforces will be Global Health.

How can we break down the siloes of the Global Health Community, make people cooperate and provide a true multi-stakeholder alliance for fighting non-communicable diseases? Leading up to the Annual Summit of The World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2010, a whitepaper will be published to address these challenges, and WEF will put together an international panel from WHO, Business community, healthcare community and NGOs with the hope of creating change.

Governments, donors and other funders heavily skew funding toward infectious diseases. It is, to some extent, as a result of the victories scored there—which have reduced child mortality and lengthened life expectancy—that chronic disease has been able to proliferate so dramatically. We can build upon the learnings from GAVI and HIV/AIDS coalitions and replicate the success for non-communicable diseases. What about a new type of GAVI for fighting non-communicable diseases?

Economist Intelligence Unit has just published a report for LIVESTRONG on the Global Economic Impact of Cancer. The global economic cost of the 12.9m new cancer cases in 2009 is estimated to be US$286bn by Economist Intelligence Unit. These costs disproportionately accrue to high income countries, which account for 94% of the total estimated costs and losses. Per-case expenditures as well as lost income are higher in these countries.

Let me use access to cancer diagnostics and treatment as an example of the inequality that exists in global health. Africa represents 15% of global population, contributes 6.4% of new cancer cases and accounts for only 0.3% of global cancer costs according to Economist Intelligence Unit.

More new cases of cancer arise and more deaths from the disease occur today in the lower-income and middle-income countries that make up the developing world, than in high income countries. In the places where cancer is growing fastest, the silence that accompanies the disease is often the result of a complete lack of meaningful information for those affected by cancer—the disease may go undetected and untreated until it leads to death. Even then, the cause of death may remain undiagnosed.

The specific challenges relating to cancer control in the developing world are exacerbated by other, related phenomena. These include inadequate health systems infrastructure, scarcity of necessary specialised skills (and specialists), high diagnostic and treatment costs, and the resulting inability to provide lengthy, complex personalised treatment regimens and follow-up care, as necessary

Some of these challenges are caused at least in part by inadequate funding. There is evidence of disparities in healthcare expenditure in the developed world compared with the burden of the disease. Chronic diseases—cancer among them—account for a much larger share of the total disease burden than does related spending as a share of all healthcare outlays.

Despite the challenges, there is plenty of room for optimism. Of all the chronic diseases, cancer may be the most preventable (Danaei, et al. 2005). In addition, the knowledge to detect and treat the disease and to improve the quality of life for those with cancer has vastly improved in the past decade.

In the coming months, I would appreciate all your feedback on how we can build an international alliance and a funding mechanism for fighting chronic diseases. You can contact me through Twitter at @bjartereve or send to my fellow Young Global Leader - Johan Olav Koss @JohannKoss.