Despite being the leading cause of mortality and premature death, cardiovascular disease is largely preventable through simple, inexpensive, but underused actions. With financial and political capital, there has been substantial progress against HIV infection, malaria, tuberculosis, vaccine-preventable disease, and many causes of maternal and infant mortality. But of the more than $35 billion the world spends on development assistance in health, less than 1% goes toward prevention of cardiovascular disease.