Health Investment Cases Drive Action and Policy Change
Published on 18 April 2024
The full value of health and well-being to societies and economies is often underappreciated or overlooked in governance decisions. This is in part due to lack of data on the near- and longer-term socio-economic benefits of investing in health. Health investment cases are an advocacy tool, empowering decision makers with more complete data and evidence on the society-wide harms of ill-health and the society-wide benefits of scaling up action. They raise awareness and support multi-sectoral governance and financing of health and well-being.
Since 2015, UNDP, WHO and partners have collaborated with national governments to develop 85 national investment cases on health topics, such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), mental health and tobacco control. These have spanned 56 countries across all regions. Fifty additional UNDP investment cases for health are underway and will provide more of the world with data and evidence to invest in health as a sustainable development priority.
The cases are government-led and country-tailored. The entire process, from initiation to launch, joins ministries of health with ministries of finance, economy, trade and others. The cases drive country-level engagement of parliamentarians, civil society, media, academia, private sector partners and the UN system.
Following UNDP and WHO-supported investment cases, governments take action to improve health and advance the Sustainable Development Goals. As of 2024, UNDP has tracked 130 actions that governments have taken in line with and following their investment case recommendations. These identified actions are based on country reporting, news articles and dialogue with focal points and partners. They span three linked and overlapping areas: (i) governance, including laws, policies, plans, coordination and public communications; (ii) financing, including budget allocation, leveraging additional partnership support, and health taxes; and (iii) health service access and delivery, including health system strengthening, universal health coverage and service provision.
By thematic area, the majority of tracked actions to date are in tobacco control, followed by NCDs broadly, alcohol control, nutrition, clinical services, physical activity and mental health (see chart below). This distribution aligns with the fact that the majority of the 85 completed cases to date address tobacco control or NCDs.
Where countries have taken actions that align with investment case recommendations, a more rigorous analysis is needed to explore the exact contribution of the cases, amid broader work and support. UNDP will continue to develop insights on the investment case findings and impacts. That includes forthcoming insights on the health and economic benefits of actions that governments have already taken. It will also include deeper analysis of how countries are using their cases to support universal health coverage and SDG acceleration.
