Global Development: Where Are We Now? Today, we are facing a vital opportunity to change the profile of cardiovascular disease around the world. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are due to expire at the end of 2015, placing the cardiovascular health community in a unique position to shape the priorities for the next development agenda, and save millions of lives. Despite its devastating impact on people of all ages, genders and ethnicities, cardiovascular disease was excluded from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were announced by the United Nations in 2000. That oversight was far-reaching; for well over a decade, non-communicable diseases were omitted from the global funding agenda and deprioritized by other mechanisms. During that period of muted government action, the prevalence and burden of non-communicable diseases increased in every region of the world. Fifteen years later, as the successors to the MDGs are being negotiated, we are in a position to call for the prioritization of cardiovascular disease on the forthcoming global development agenda. Once we have ensured that CVD is recognised at the global policy level, our efforts will turn to encouraging governments to honour their commitments on the prevention and control of CVD.