Remarks delivered by Nick Banatvala, Head of Secretariat, UN Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs
Investment is one of the concrete actions of the NCD Compact.
And the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund to Catalyze Country action for NCDs and Mental Health (commonly known as the Health4Life Fund), established last year by WHO, UNDP and UNICEF, is highlighted in the Compact as a mechanism to deliver adequate, predictable, and sustained resources for the prevention and control of NCDs.
To quote from the compact, ‘the recently established UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund is one of the global financing partnerships to support LMICs to mobilize domestic resources and to scale up action’.
As Feng from the World Bank just said, financing for NCDs and mental health conditions is woefully inadequate.
But in addition to supporting action under investment, Health4Life cuts across the other actions in the Compact, including:
Accelerating country action. Health4Life will provide catalytic funding to support countries scale up and accelerate action, clearing bottlenecks which impede progress.
Aligning. By committing funds to support the strategies and plans of countries. But also harmonizing action – through a joined up UN system response.
And engaging. Because the fund is a UN system wide mechanism, working with governments, academia, non-governmental organizations, philanthropies, the private sector, civil society, and people with lived experiences of NCDs and mental health conditions.
So let me tell you a little more about this fund.
- It responds to country-demand and was established in response to a number of UNGA, Economic and Social Council and World Health Assembly resolutions as well as a recommendation of the WHO Independent high-level commission on NCDs.
- The Fund builds on the work of UN Inter-Agency Task Force on NCDs and its members – needs identified in joint programming missions, and the outcomes of a large number of country-led investment cases.
- Health4Life has three founding strategic partners: Kenya, Thailand and Uruguay – demonstrating that leadership for the Fund is coming from the South. And that the principles set out in the Terms of Reference, including being country-led, catalytic, cross-sectoral and equity-driven, are adhered to.
- The Fund is engaging with civil society. Two NGOs are currently part of the Steering Committee and the expectation is that proposals will be developed in country with the inputs of civil society.
- The Fund is aiming to raise 250 million dollars over 5 years. An amount that is appropriate for the first phase of a fund that is catalytic rather than if I can say ‘Global Fund’ in nature: this is as it should be. Health4Life is aiming to mobilize rather than replace domestic responses.
- Safeguards with regards conflicts of interest are in place.
- Health4Life is using the same approach as many other MPTFs. MPTFs were developed by Member States to pool funding to countries. This approach has been shown in evaluations to be both effective and efficient.
Excitingly, a number of partners announced commitments to mobilize resources for the Fund during the recent UN General Assembly high-level week. But we are looking for more partners to join the Fund and shape the way it works its start-up phase.
So let me conclude by encouraging those of you here today who would like to know more to get in touch with the Health4Life Secretariat.
And… encouraging the Global Group of Heads of State and Government for the Prevention and Control of NCDs and all those driving forward the compact to join forces with the Health4Life Fund.
And finally that the Fund is included in preparatory discussions ahead of the 4th UNGA High Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025, including the milestones describes in today’s concept note.