The fourth annual UN Interagency Task Force meeting to discuss progress on country-tailored investment cases was held on 19-21 April 2021. The event reviewed all investment case work under Pillar 1 of the WHO-UNDP global joint programme to catalyse multisectoral action and those conducted under the Convention Secretariat’s FCTC2030 project. More than seventy health economists and public health specialist met to take stock of experiences to date and to chart a path forward for helping governments harness cost-benefit analyses to advocate for scaled-up action on a range of health challenges.
The meeting revised the progress in the following areas, where investment case methodology is being utilised or developed:
- NCDs
- Tobacco control
- Mental health
- Air pollution
- Alcohol
- Co-morbidities of NCDs and infectious diseases
- Neglected tropical diseases
- Health taxes
- Road safety
Investment cases have become a crucial advocacy tool, catalysing countries’ efforts to scale up the implementation of evidence-based, cost-effective measures against NCDs and their risk factors. Investment cases have helped governments and development partners better understand the true burden of NCDs and mental health conditions on the economy as a whole, particularly for sectors beyond health, and the substantial socio-economic benefits that stronger preventive and clinical interventions can yield. Countries are now using these investment cases to scale up fiscal, regulatory and legislative action to tackle NCDs. Investment cases are crucial in supporting countries ensure that the NCD-related SDGs are part of building back better towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda after COVID-19. (1)
In the last five years, 15 investment cases for NCDs and 14 investment cases for tobacco control have been launched, and more than a dozen new NCD and tobacco control investment cases are in production. More recently investment case methodology has been expanded to cover mental health, and six country investment cases for mental health are currently being developed. Participants also explored the potential for expanding investment cases into other areas such as air pollution and road safety, as well as universal health coverage more broadly.
Participants reviewed the economic and institutional context analysis tools that are currently being used for investment cases and agreed on how they best be updated.
(1) Responding to NCDs during and beyond the COVID-19. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Non-communicable_diseases-Policy_brief-2020.1