"Friends of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Prevention and Control of NCDs" Meeting
a reflection from Andrea
So young, yet so mighty: The Health Finance Institute attended the Friends of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases meeting on Sept. 23rd at the United Nations as a "Friend" of the UNIATF. Apart from having our seat at the table, some of the highlights of the session included WHO Deputy Director-General, Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab urging UN agencies and UN country teams to scale up efforts and advocating for the creation of a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for NCDs – for which HFI is supporting the business plan.
The session also included an NCD leadership award ceremony and important global updates, such as India's banning on e-cigarettes, and Norway committing more global support and funding towards fighting NCDs.
A set of publications were also launched:
- A set of briefs on how individual UN agencies support country action on NCDs.
- A set of case studies on how UN and multilateral agencies are scaling up work on NCDs. Here, NCDs are highlighted as a development issue – something very much aligned with HFI’s thinking and advocacy.
- WHO’s Health Policy Tax brief.
HFI at UNIATF meeting with a seat at the table.
Next step: getting our name right 🙂
Left to Right: Dr. Andrea Feigl and Dr. Nick Banatvala (Head of Secretariat – UN Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs (UNIATF)) at the UNIATF session.
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UNGA themes and Financing in the Future
a reflection from Surabhi
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HFI is a unique actor and a welcome "unusual suspect" in this ecosystem. By unpacking economic evidence and data, we develop financing solutions that are tailored and focused according to context and need. We do this by working closely with partners to bridge both the finance and health gap and the public and private divide...on our way to Funding NCDs 2.0.
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You know it’s UNGA when you...
- Take 25 minutes to walk three blocks because Second Avenue is closed (you just don’t know when...).
- Hear a reporter or media journalist on every other street corner speaking a different language.
- Scramble to snag last-minute passes to get onto UN Grounds.
- Run into people from your past professional lives – and reconnect over coffee or a glass of wine.
- Occasionally misplace your SDG lapel pin more than twice.
- Set up as many side meetings and bilaterals as humanly possible – because that’s where all of the action happens.
But humor aside – as you can imagine, so many of the discussions, events, bilateral meetings, and networking receptions during the weeks resonated with HFI’s core mission and vision.
One discussion that stood out in particular was Funding the Future 2.0: The next frontier for financing models in health co-hosted by MSD for Mothers, The Global Financing Facility, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and GBCHealth. Developing alternative and innovative financing solutions – and documenting lessons learned and successes – is still relatively nascent – and for chronic diseases, it’s far and few between (if any at all). GBCHealth’s Board of Directors Co-Chair, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, spoke about the importance of context and tailoring financial instruments according to country demand, “Proximity is critical. Any product designed outside of Nigeria will not work for Nigeria. We can have generic theoretical underpinnings but we need to go to the country.” In addition, OPIC’s Kathryn Kaufman spoke about bringing together the right – and often unorthodox partners – around the table, through “radical collaboration”.
If you are interested in watching a part of the session, Devex has it recorded here.
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The Linkages between Climate Change and NCDs
a reflection from Niloofar
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HFI certainly agrees that an interdisciplinary approach could address the challenges faced by both NCDs and climate change. The application of innovative financing solutions could lead to a win-win situation for both issues. We would love to begin a greater conversation on the lessons learned in health financing and how they can be applied to planetary health. Share some of your thoughts with us today on Twitter: @HealthFinInst.
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“Obesity is a growing issue in the South Pacific. People are unable to maintain a fish diet due to the impacts of climate change on our oceans” – President Thomas Remengesau Jr. of the Republic of Palau
The links between climate change and public health were among the many topics explored at the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly. While at UNGA, HFI had the opportunity to attend a few events that shed some light on the interrelationship between the two topics. upcoming blog post exploring this linkage of climate change and NCDs.
Look out for: upcoming blog post exploring this linkage of climate change and NCDs.
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Digital Health, NCDs, and UHC: an Intersection
reflections from Yun
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HFI’s dynamic data model takes into account the target population and current coverage of NCD interventions so that our partners can navigate among needs in different countries and regions, and creates flexibility to shift needs between countries and countries.
HFI sees the gap in investment for NCDs at the community level, and hopes that, through our innovative financing solutions, we can reduce the burden of the community healthcare projects to raise the awareness of NCDs, improve current prevention measures, and bring diagnostic equipment to the community level.
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Digital health strategy is essential and necessary for achieving UHC. Using Philips’ ultrasound technology in Rwanda as an example, country partners and the private sector are working hard together, but digital data strategy is still very limited. UHC calls for a data infrastructure for scaling up health service delivery.
UHC and Power of the People: The case for investing in a qualified health workforce
Hon. Dr. Diane Gashumba, Minister of Health, Rwanda
Community health workers are crucial to the health system. The question is how can we encourage and increase collaboration to support health care workers globally? Rwanda takes a bottom-up approach. The first responsibility goes to the local government to keep investing in the community health program.
Look out for: upcoming blog post delineating how HFI works around some of the thematic areas explored at UNGA, including private sector engagement and outcomes-based financing.
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Other photos at UNGA.
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Resources
Upcoming Events
- How Can Multilateral Development Banks Best Engage Middle-Income Countries?, 17 October 2019, Washington, D.C., US, organized by the Center for Global Development.
- Gender Lens Investing in Practice: A Conversation with Investors and Investees,18 October 2019, Washington, D.C., US, organized by the Center for Global Development.
- Financing Universal Health Coverage: Opportunities and Challenges on the Road to 2030,18 October 2019, Washington, D.C., US, organized by the Center for Global Development.
- SOCAP19, 22-25 October 2019, San Francisco, US, organized by Social Capital Markets (SOCAP).
- World Health Summit, 27-29 October 2019, Berlin, Germany, organized by Charité.
- World Stroke Day, 29 October 2019, Global, organized by the World Stroke Organization (WSO).
- 15th EVPA Annual Conference, 5-7 November 2019, The Hague, Netherlands, organized by European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA).
- WHO Global Meeting To Accelerate Progress on SGD target 3.4 on NCDs and Mental Health, 9-12 December 2019, Muscat, Oman, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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Get Involved
We look forward to working together to move beyond the dialogue for NCDs financing to actionable steps. If you are interested in exploring opportunities to engage and partner, please contact our team:
Dr. Andrea Feigl
Founder & Executive Director
andrea@healthfinanceinstitute.org
Surabhi Bhatt
Co-Founder & Director of Strategy and Operations
surabhi@healthfinanceinstitute.org
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