Saving lives, spending less: a strategic response to noncommunicable diseases reveals, for the first time, the financing needs and returns on investment of the WHO cost-effective and feasible “Best Buy” policies to protect people from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), the world’s leading causes of ill health and death.

This long awaited report outlines the investment case for addressing NCDs, quantifying the health and economic benefits of implementing the WHO Best Buys. The bottom line: invest now, save later.

Taxes on unhealthy products have the potential to produce major health gains among the poorest in society, who are disproportionately affected by NCDs, according to an analysis released by a taskforce of The Lancet today.

Two events in the next two weeks will turn the spotlight from the need for heightened political will in the NCDs response to the paucity of financing for NCDs ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs in New York on 27 September.

The major outcome of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3), which concluded yesterday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was the adoption of an outcome document containing a series of measures to renew and enhance global commitments for financing sustainable development.

What are the most effective means of sustainable financing for prevention and control of NCDs? This question set the tone for the side event held last Tuesday 14 July, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the margins of the Third International Conference of Financing for Development (FFD3). 

Against the backdrop of the Third International Conference of Financing for Development (FfD3) in Addis Ababa, this side event will examine means of sustainable financing for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as part of efforts to strengthen national health systems.