During today’s annual Friends of the UN NCD Task Force event held during the 78th UN General Assembly, First Minister Humza Yousaf of Scotland committed GBP 2.5 million (USD 3.2 million) to the UN Health4Life Fund.
“WHO predicts that by 2030 non-communicable diseases – such as heart attacks, strokes, and cancers - will be the primary cause of death across sub-Saharan Africa, with around 3.8 million premature deaths,” remarked First Minister Yousaf.
The First Minister highlighted the threat that NCDs and mental ill health pose to meeting health and sustainable development goals in countries across the world including Scotland, in particular the challenge for low-income countries.
Yousaf raised the alarm on the scarcity of global financing for NCDs and mental health conditions as a significant roadblock to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 of reducing by one-third early death from these diseases noting that “NCDs only receive 2% of the development assistance for the health sector.” He added, “Scotland wants to help redress that balance.”
Scotland’s pledge responds to calls over many years from low- and middle-income countries for catalytic support for their NCDs and mental health responses. Scotland now joins Kenya, Thailand, and Uruguay as a strategic partner of the Health4Life Fund.
The Health4Life Fund approach centers leadership of the Global South, with the First Minister noting that “The Fund will support collaboration led by the Global South…and will focus overdue attention upon a major global health challenge. And crucially, by promoting the leadership of the Global South, it will encourage solutions that are better adapted to those countries’ health needs and priorities.”
Scotland’s contribution to the Health4Life Fund builds upon its long-standing support to Africa, including Malawi, Rwanda, and Zambia, where Scotland has invested in scaling up local models of care that increase access to health services for NCDs.
Yousaf made an impassioned plea for others to join the Fund, saying “The funding that I have confirmed today makes Scotland the first high-income country to invest in the Health4Life Fund, but I very much hope we will not be the last. We see the fund as being a welcome step forward and the work of the Inter-Agency Task Force for NCDs and Mental Health, and we hope and expect that in the years to come, it will save tens of millions of lives.”
“WHO welcomes the leadership of the Government of Scotland in supporting the Health4Life Fund, which is crucial in catalyzing action in countries to prevent and control non-communicable diseases,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “We look forward to working in partnership with Scotland to maximise the impact of these funds and to encourage others to support the Health4Life Fund.”
Watch the video clip of the First Minister's remarks on Twitter
Read the Scottish government’s announcement on their website here.
For further information contact: Linda Merieau (merieaul@who.int)