Twenty-three Member States received an update on the United Nations Health4Life Fund on 28 April 2023. The Fund spearheaded by WHO, UNDP and UNICEF and the governments of Kenya, Thailand and Uruguay was established in 2021 to catalyse action on NCDs and mental health.
Bruce Aylward, WHO Assistant Director-General emphasized WHO’s high-level political commitment to pooled funding mechanisms, stressing the importance of the Health4Life Fund to accelerate country action.
Aylward highlighted the value of the UN working together on funds such as the Health4Life Fund, ‘When the entire UN system works together, we have much greater impact, especially when we do that behind the leadership of the countries that we're here to serve’. Aylward pointed out that the Fund needed to be fully resourced if it was to ‘really make a dent in the completely unacceptable burden of NCDs and mental health’.
Stew Simonson, Director of WHO’s New York office, described the importance of an agile, cohesive and responsive UN system to drive the 2030 Agenda. Simonson commented that ‘making WHO fit for purpose in order to achieve and deliver on the SDGs is what drives all of us at WHO.’ Simonson added, ‘Health4Life Fund provides a meaningful opportunity to contribute to UN reform, not only in words, but in actions’.
Member States heard from Jennifer Topping, Executive Coordinator in the Multi Partner Trust Fund Office in New York that is the administrative agent for all UN multi-partners trust funds, including the Health4Life Fund. Topping explained that UN trust funds provide ‘a way of promoting coherence to deliver on common objectives … for a more effective and efficient use of resources, better transparency and accountability, and an ability to see overlaps and [avoid] duplication’.
Topping elaborated on the key success factors for these funds, highlighting the need for strong leadership, a clear theory of change with a sharp focus on the expected results and outcomes, a strong fund secretariat, and full capitalization.
WHO, UNDP and UNICEF shared progress on the Health4Life Fund, describing how the Fund supports a transformative approach to global health financing – one that truly centres on the needs of the Global South. The Health4Life Fund Secretariat outlined a set of exciting new partnerships, the Fund’s resource mobilization strategy, and Fund’s grant making approach.
Kenya and Uruguay set out their commitment as champions and global advocates, with Peace Mutama, Health Attaché, with the Permanent Mission of Kenya to the UN in Geneva saying, ‘We welcome the approach taken to establish this fund as a catalytic [instrument] to increase domestic resources’, while Soledad Martinez, Minister Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Uruguay, invited Member States to join an informal Health4Life Fund lunch that they are hosting with Kenya during the World Health Assembly.