Download Meeting Report: International Dialogue on Sustainable Financing for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health [PDF]

The international financing dialogue for NCDs and mental health is a collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank Group. The meeting  supports the preparatory process leading up to the Fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs and mental health in 2025.

The objectives of the dialogue are to:

  • Define and build consensus among stakeholders on actionable national strategies and policy recommendations that enable and enhance the integration of NCDs and mental health in national health financing systems - and discuss their implications in informing health financing reforms that can sustain adequate, stable, and predictable financing; enable strategic purchasing; and enhance financial protection.
  • Discuss and identify approaches on how to integrate prioritized NCDs and mental health responses within national health and financing plans, with the aim of preventing NCDs and mental health conditions as well as providing high-quality, equitable services that are integrated into existing health systems and broader public health ecosystems.
  • Inform a forward-looking agenda to guide countries towards accelerating progress and realizing the targets under SDG 3.4 by 2030 – as a key milestone in the process for the 4th High-level Meeting of UNGA on NCDs (2025) and beyond.

A draft of technical background papers and a synthesis of emerging messages were prepared for consultations with Member States, non-State actors, the UN system, WHO and the World Bank.

The International financing dialogue will bring together up to 150 participants including representatives from selected Member States across different sectors (primarily health and finance), WHO, UN agencies, the World Bank and other multilateral organizations, interested non-State actors, including civil society and people living with NCDs and mental health conditions.

The International financing dialogue takes place in-person with livestreaming available for selected sessions.

The working language of the meeting is English with interpretation provided in all official UN languages.

High-level Agenda

08:30 – 08:50: Welcome and opening remarks

08:50 – 09:30: Contextualizing the need for a dialogue on sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health

Moderated high-level plenary with stakeholders

Objectives:

  • To understand the urgency and need for sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health from the perspective of stakeholders in the room.

09:30 – 09:45: The future we imagine

Keynote

Objectives:

  • To articulate what is different about the world we are living in today and how we need to work differently. What does this moment call for on the agenda in the context of today’s world. What is the opportunity?

9:45 – 10:30: Where are we now? Creating opportunities for sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health

Statements & Q/A

Objectives:

  • To set out the case for investment and the road to 2025
  • To note the scope for the meeting including on mental health
  • To highlight the need for innovative/strategic partnerships
  • To provide an overview of the meeting structure and objectives

11:00 – 11:50: Sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health – what does it mean?

Moderated high-level plenary

Objectives, to understand:

  • How countries are integrating NCDs and mental health into public health reforms
  • How ministries of health and ministries of finance are working together to address the challenge of NCDs and mental health
  • What financial mechanisms are being used to address financial hardship from NCDs and mental health conditions
  • How stakeholders are building the case for investment in NCDs and mental health including how they are considering sustainability of investments

11:50 – 12:00: Reflections and conclusion

13:00 – 14:00: From political to financial commitment for NCDs and mental health

Moderated high-level plenary & Q/As

Key Conversation 1: Putting NCDs and Mental Health on the Road to More Sustainable Financing.

Objectives:

  • To set out the role of domestic revenue-raising and DAH for addressing NCDs and mental health, in the context of changing fiscal environments
  • To reflect on country approaches to translate political will into financial commitment for NCDs and mental health

16:15 – 17:00: Interactive plenary: Reflections on day 1

Moderated fishbowl

Objectives:

  • To give participants the opportunity to input into discussions from the day
  • To use participant inputs to distil the main messages emerging

17:00 – 17:15: Featured Speaker: Achieving the highest possible standard of health in societies

Objectives:

  • To provide a personal perspective on the need to consider a values-based, human rights approach when making policy and financial decisions related to mental health and NCDs
  • To reflect on the values that form the basis for decision making when setting priorities related to NCDs and mental health

High-level Agenda

08:15 – 08:45: Synthesis of Day 1 and framing of Day 2

Fireside chat

08:45 – 09:15: From political to financial commitment for NCDs and mental health

Featured Speaker and Q/A

Key Conversation 2: Reshaping health systems and financing mechanisms to prevent NCDs and mental health conditions and address the needs of people living with those conditions.

Objectives:

  • To provide insights into the short- and long-term investments needed for NCDs and mental health.
  • To provide a personal perspective and account of the speaker’s lived experience with NCDs

09:15 – 09:45: Country panel: How do countries decide what to finance?

Moderated country panel

Objectives:

  • To understand the criteria used by countries in setting priorities including the balance between prevention and treatment
  • To understand the enablers and barriers experienced by countries during the priority setting process including the role of stakeholders

09:45 - 10:30: How do we decide what to finance?

Moderated and facilitated table discussions

Questions to be discussed at each table:

  • What is your experience in setting priorities?
  • Which messages resonated with you most from the panel?
  • How are you considering the best buy interventions when setting priorities?
  • How are you balancing prevention (e.g., tobacco, alcohol, sugar, etc.) with service delivery?

10:45 – 11:30: Discussion on public health promotion and population wide prevention

Moderated discussion

Objectives:

  • To outline the role of financial levers in facilitating the prioritisation and implementation of policies and population-wide public health interventions to better prevent NCDs and mental health conditions
  • To learn about country successes in implementing population-wide prevention measures such as: legislation/regulation (e.g., food labelling); mental health promotion and protection; taxation of unhealthy products (alcohol, tobacco, sugary drinks, ultra-processed foods); and policy measures to address the social and commercial determinants of health

11:30 – 11:45: Featured Speaker: Why primary healthcare reforms are NCDs and mental health reforms?

Objectives:

  • To argue the case that primary healthcare reforms are indeed NCD and mental health reforms for all countries regardless of income classification
  • To discuss financial protection and other measures that must be taken to protect the most vulnerable

11:45 – 12:45: Effective financing strategies and policies for health priorities

Moderated panel discussion and Q/A

To showcase how countries’ have used health financing strategies to provide better service coverage and financial protection to achieve UHC for NCDs and MH conditions. This might include consideration of the following:

  • Contracting and provider payment methods
  • Mechanisms to strengthen financial protection/reduce out-of-pocket spending
  • Instruments to mitigate the effects of pooling fragmentation
  • Financing instruments that incentivize comprehensive, coordinated continuum of care for NCDs and mental health conditions along the life-course

12:45 – 13:30: Shifting health systems: realizing people centered care through tailored well integrated investments at scale

Moderated fireside chat

Objectives:

  • To discuss how countries can shift systems through targeted and integrated investments in key levers – human resources for health, digital health, supply chains – that support/ sustain effective, high quality, people centered NCD and mental health delivery systems

14:30 – 14:45: Recap from Key Conversation 2

14:45 – 15:00: Featured Speaker: Realizing health for all, what does success look like?

Key Conversation 3: Realizing Health For All – What Success Looks Like

Objectives:

  • To define a shared vision of success (including the financial case for) and showcase how, by implementing the financing mechanisms discussed in conversation 1 and 2, progress can be accelerated towards universal health coverage (UHC), healthy longevity and equity
  • To analyse the implications of the financing mechanisms discussed on human capital development, the protection of human rights, social inclusion and economic security, reduced risk of financial hardship and impoverishment

15:00 – 16:00: Implementing financing strategies for human capital, equity, longevity, and UHC: Practical insights

Moderated plenary

Objectives:

  • To ask countries and stakeholders to provide examples of the steps taken to make progress towards UHC, healthy longevity and equity
  • To consider these actions in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals targets 3.4 and 3.8

16:30 – 17:30: Turning conversation into action: emerging messages towards the Fourth High-Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025

Moderated interactive session

  • What are your top three messages emerging from the dialogue for you?
  • What are the key questions that you are left with? What is still on your mind?

Final reflections on messages emerging from the dialogue

17:30 – 17:45: Closing statements

WHO and the World Bank held a hybrid (in-person and virtual) multistakeholder briefing on March 15, 2024, to share an overview of the preparation for the International financing dialogue. An outline of the technical background papers, in preparation of an open web-based consultation on the documents was provided. The multistakeholder briefing comprised non-State actors in official relationships with WHO, UN agencies, and multilateral organizations.

Further web-based multistakeholder consultations are ongoing until close of business 17 June 2024 (CEST) to enable all interested parties to contribute their views (access the consultation page here)

Title: NCD’s Health Taxes: from the Idea to Implementation

 

Session Description:

 

The World Bank and the World Health Organization, together with partners, launched a country-focused webinar series exploring issues related to health financing, noncommunicable diseases and mental health. 

 

This webinar, which focused on health taxes, was the opening session of the series.

 

Health taxes represent a win-win arrangement — they are good for population health and good for the public purse. This session will look at the policy and implementation processes to introduce health taxes in a country, including the role of coalitions in making the case, the type of evidence which is helpful and how the deliberations can contribute to a political momentum for more attention to NCDs.

 

In this webinar, building on the experience of Ghana and other countries, the speakers explored the challenges and barriers as well as opportunities, across policy stages, from agenda setting till implementation.

Title: Living with chronic conditions: the dual challenge of equitable access and financial protection

 

Session Description:

 

People living with chronic conditions are especially vulnerable to inadequate financial protection in health systems. Ongoing care often requires repeated out-of-pocket payments for medicines, tests, and visits—costs that accumulate and drive financial hardship. Medicines are a major contributor to this burden. As a result, individuals may delay or forgo necessary care, including preventive and early treatment, worsening health outcomes over time. Disease-specific studies on conditions like diabetes, cancer, respiratory and heart disease highlight how financial barriers prevent timely, appropriate care. These struggles deepen health inequities, particularly among economically vulnerable populations, and underscore the urgent need for stronger financial protection.

 

In this webinar, we reviewed the service access and financial hardship issues faced by people living with non-communicable diseases or mental health conditions. 

 

We built on the experience of a set of countries, reviewed state of the knowledge, discussed empirical challenges to document these issues and reviewed possible health system and health financing interventions to address them.

Title: Raising public awareness to mobilize domestic resources for NCDs and mental health: the role of champions

 

Session Description:

 

In some societies, NCDs and their risk factors are not yet seen as priority for public resource allocation, while mental health conditions are further marked by stigma and discrimination. Yet, the expansion of NCDs and mental health services will have to be primarily driven by domestic financing. Patient and family associations, persons with lived experience, clinicians and the press have a crucial role to play to gain support from their fellow citizens.

 

In this third webinar of our series, we heard testimonies from people with lived experience, clinicians and other advocates. We discussed how they have leveraged evidence, engagement with policy makers, campaigns and media coverage to advance the cause for NCDs and mental health in their own countries. 

Title: Health financing reforms to support integrated service delivery for NCDs and mental health

 

Session Description:

 

Countries have to allocate much more financial resources to NCDs and Mental Health interventions. Health financing institutional arrangements are pivotal enablers… but can also be barriers. In the fourth webinar of our series, we discussed how priority setting processes, benefit package design, pooling arrangements and provider payment mechanisms can be revised to enhance the financing of NCD and mental health conditions.

 

We also learned from the recent experience of Rwanda, Ghana and Tunisia. 

Title:


From dialogue to action: insights on financing NCDs and mental health ahead of the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting

Session Description:

 

On 25 September, 2025, world leaders convened at the Fourth High-level Meeting at the UN General Assembly (HLM4) to endorse a bold political declaration aimed at accelerating the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In the lead-up to HLM4, the International Dialogue on Sustainable Financing for NCDs and Mental Health — held in June 2024—gathered a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including ministries of health and finance, development partners, civil society, and technical experts. The Dialogue focused on identifying actionable strategies to mobilize adequate, predictable, and sustainable financing for NCDs and mental health, with particular attention to aligning health financing reforms to national priorities and service delivery.

 

This fifth and final webinar in our series features a presentation of the Dialogue’s key messages. Discussants will reflect on the priority actions identified — such as acting on the prices of medicines, establishing supportive digital systems and carrying out health service delivery research.

Date: June 20 - 21, 2024 ET

Location: Washington, DC