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We thank you again for your interest and participation in the Inaugural Symposium: Innovative Financing for Global Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) on May 21st.
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The Symposium on Innovative Financing for Global Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) dissected the necessary political actions and practical technical realities for catalyzing NCDs financing and partnerships. Convened by the Health Finance Institute, the two sessions drew from experiences of high-level star political and technical experts across countries, multilateral institutions, private sector, development agencies, and implementers and was followed by dynamic Q&A segment with the audience participants. As the only side event at WHA focused on financing and partnerships for NCDs, this opportunity of bringing together critical actors came with a sense of urgency when there is a jarring gap in public and private health financing, particularly for NCDs.
- A welcome statement and opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Andrea Feigl, Founder and Executive Director of the Health Finance Institute.
- This was followed by an introduction to the Health Finance Institute, a new global health venture aimed to catalyze and scale pathways for increased investment in NCDs (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and mental health) with an ultimate goal of accelerating the expansion of fiscal space for NCDs globally. It does so by identifying novel financing solutions. establishing necessary, multisectoral partnerships, and identifying and unblocking roadblocks of NCD financing.
- The global health community is stuck in a poverty trap: immense disease burden of NCDs and the lack of financing and partnerships. The health and economic burden of NCDs is tragic and a true emergency, accounting for approximately 70% of deaths globally, and causing decades of disability). Continued underinvestment in the fight against NCDs cost roughly US$47 trillion in lost gross domestic product globally from 2011 to 2025. Development assistance for NCDs is less than 3% of all DAH.
- At the 2018 UN High-Level Commission for NCDs last September, the WHO High-Level Commission called for a catalytic fund for NCDs to support countries to act on evidenced-base cost-effective interventions and policies, as they build technical capacity and mobilize domestic resources.
Panel 1: Less talking, more doing: How do we catalyze political and global action for NCD financing?
 The first panel was moderated by Dr. Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. This panel highlighted the need for greater political action and advocacy to bring about the necessary financing and policy response to address the global epidemic of NCDs.
While the approaches to increase financing of NCDs – from increased development assistance to focusing on prevention and taxation to public-private blended finance mechanisms – vary greatly, they all share a common characteristic: political challenges. Yet, inaction will both lead to increases in human suffering and economic losses. This panel discussed the political landscape of feasibility of NCD financing, including the idea of a catalytic fund, and which solutions might be most politically viable, if imperfect.
Dr Kibachio Joseph Muiruri MWANGI, Head of the Division of Noncommunicable Diseases, Ministry of Health of Kenya noted support of a catalytic fund for NCDs and should be ‘catalytic to the core’. The catalytic fund allows room for private sector input, but has an intention to feed into national policies and efforts, with public-private partnerships at the foundation. In addition, he noted that one of the biggest challenges of NCDs is coordination and integration. Dr. Kibachio delivered high-level remarks on behalf of Mrs. Sicily K. Kariuki, the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Health of Kenya. Kenya plays a unique role as a co-chair of the Working Group 3 of the WHO High-Level Commission for NCDs, and a steward for this catalytic fund and increased financing for NCDs.
Dr. Christoph Benn, Director, Global Health Diplomacy at the Joep Lange Institute and Senior Advisor to the Global Fund, followed by providing context and comparative perspectives and challenges of financing for communicable diseases and financing for NCDs. While there are existing financial mechanisms and fund models that have been tried and tested, a simple ‘copy and paste’ for a catalytic fund will not suffice. The global NCDs community can rather glean and apply some elements from these past experiences in a thoughtful and deliberate manner and attract a broader set of stakeholders.
Framing the NCDs discussions within the UHC context will be critical. Dr. Anders Norsdström, Ambassador for Global Health at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, urged that advice will need to span both technical and financing sides. Largely political, the issue of NCDs should be elevated within broader, systems dialogue and the ongoing large-scale infectious disease efforts – with a strong emphasis on domestic resource mobilization.
Arnaud Bernaert, Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum, serves as co-chair of the Working Group 3 of the High-Level Commission for NCDs and spoke about the involvement and investments necessary from the private sector. He presented three ideas including market shaping solutions, management of equipment and services, and the use of proceeds of a catalytic fund. One of the recommendations of the Commission has been to develop a model for a partnership platform to supporting and advising countries to develop effective engagement with private sector and public private partnerships to support NCD responses.
Alan Donnelly, Executive Chairman Sovereign Strategy and Convener of the G20 Health and Development Partnership, provided commentary from his experience working with health and finance ministers, and underscored the importance of presenting NCDs as an argument to the latter by approaching the issue from an economic point of view. In addition, he mentioned the challenge of scaling up initiatives and the absence of a clearinghouse.
The final panelist, Dr. Margaret Agama-Anyetei, Head of Division of Health, Population and Nutrition at African Union Commission, linked the panel discussion around ensuring that integration of NCD financing and delivery is embedded in primary health care model and health systems. She spoke on parallels of financing the HIV response and NCDs response and what African priorities are to address the underinvestment in NCDs.
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Q&A session followed the presentations, which was later followed by a short networking break.
Panel 2: Practical Realities: A deeper dive into the implementation challenges of traditional and innovative financing in NCDs
 Surabhi Bhatt, Co-Founder and Director of Strategy and Operations of the Health Finance Institute, introduced the second panel. The theme of multisectorality and SDG 17 of global partnerships continued as the panelists were representative across the spectrum – private sector, country government, multilateral, implementing partner, and non-profit. Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive Officer, World Obesity Federation served as moderator of this panel, and began the dialogue around technical issues of NCDs financing and the roles of multiple institutions for a global response to NCDs. An evidence base for specific interventions exists – however financial commitments and partnerships need to be made for further realization.
Dr. Nick Banatvala, Head of Secretariat, UN Task Force on NCDs; Senior Adviser to the Assistant Director General, Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, presented a proposal of a catalytic fund or multi-donor trust fund for NCDs and mental health as a means to ‘catalyze’ more domestic finance and resources. This country-driven, catalytic fund was one of the bold ideas recommended by the WHO High-level Commission on NCDs and could potentially provide technical support to scale up support to low- and lower- middle income countries in their efforts.
The poorest communities and populations are affected by NCDs – and thus a more targeted financing is necessary. Dr. Gene Bukhman, Director, Program in Global NCDs and Social Change and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Senior Health and Policy Advisor on NCDs at Partners in Health also spoke from his experiences as Co-Chair of Lancet Commission Reframing NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion. He noted the importance of the political and historical context of these interventions, the limitations of the ‘Best Buys’ and the need to as well develop and implement integrated strategies to deliver these interventions.
The third panelist, Dr. Ann Aerts, Head of the Novartis Foundation, provided perspectives on NCD financing from the Novartis Foundation and the role of philanthropic and innovative financing of NCD response to build capacity. In particular, she highlighted the various initiatives the Foundation is taking to NCDs with diverse angles, including urbanization and healthy cities and digital health.
The final panelist, Dr. Asher Salmon, Director of the Department of International Relations of the Ministry of Health of Israel provided lessons from the Israeli healthcare system on their NCD delivery strategy. He spoke about the Israel’s Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) and public budgeting processes.
A Q&A session followed the presentations, followed by concluding and closing remarks by the Health Finance Institute.
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Next steps for the Health Finance Institute (HFI) include conducting applied research on what type of financing is needed in what context. As such, HFI has developed and launched a roadmap highlighting roadblocks to financing and scaling up the NCD response, and offering potential solutions for unblocking. In addition, HFI is working to develop a global business plan for the potential catalytic fund for NCDs. The Health Finance Institute is working to identify allies to scale pathways to drive catalytic and development finance where needed. If interested in partnering or engaging with HFI, please use connect with us, using the contact information below. In addition, please look out for our newsletter and more features, and information!
Contact andrea@healthfinanceinstitute.org or surabhi@healthfinanceinstitute.org
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Health Finance Institute remains thankful to the technical advisors who were present during the Symposium for their support including, Dorje Mundle, Dr. Rachel Nugent, Vice-President, Global Noncommmunicable Diseases at RTI International, and Geoffrey So, Head of Strategy and Global Health Policy at Novartis Foundation.
In-kind support by Novartis Foundation in providing venue space and set-up and support by The G20 Health and Development Partnership for Panel 1 organization. Health Finance Institute is also grateful to the Secretariat of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of NCDs for their technical input into the development of the symposium.
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