Diabetes and Development: Warnings from South Africa and Mexico
October 25, 2026
Diabetes is now among the leading causes of death in several middle-income countries, a trend that threatens progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3. New figures from South Africa and Mexico published this quarter show the scale of the challenge and the cost of delay.
In South Africa, Statistics South Africa mortality data reported in August showed 27,692 deaths from diabetes in 2023, 5.8 per cent of all deaths, making diabetes the country's leading natural cause of death for the second year running. Dr Nomathemba Chandiwana of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation noted that about half of people with diabetes are undiagnosed and called for a national diabetes strategy and a stronger sugar tax. Writing in The Conversation on 2 October, Patrick Ngassa Piotie of the University of Pretoria reported 28,767 diabetes deaths in 2024, 6.1 per cent of all deaths, with more deaths among women (17,429) than men (11,334). He too called for a
national strategy with clear targets for prevention and care.
In Mexico, the OECD report Health at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean 2026 placed the country's diabetes rate at 16 per cent, double the OECD average. Hospital admissions for diabetes reached 149 per 100,000 people, against a regional average of 54, and the report recorded 106,874 deaths from diabetes in 2025, making it Mexico's second leading cause of death. High admission rates often signal that primary care is not reaching people early enough.
Behind these numbers are families who lose parents and earners in their most productive years. Both countries show that diabetes is a development issue as much as a health one, touching nearly every portfolio a parliament oversees.
○ ADVOCACY ACTION FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS
Parliamentarians should call on their governments to adopt funded national diabetes strategies with measurable prevention and care targets and use annual budget debates to track investment in primary care. Presenting diabetes as an economic and development issue, not only a health issue, can build support across finance, labour and social affairs committees.