Saving lives, spending less: the case for investing in noncommunicable diseases

A new World Health Organization report shows that close to seven million deaths could be prevented by 2030, if low and lower-middle income countries were to make an additional investment of less than a dollar per person per year in the prevention and treatment of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Saving lives, spending less: the case for investing in noncommunicable diseases, focuses on 76 low- and lower-middle-income countries. The report explains the NCD Best Buys and shows how every dollar invested in scaling up Best Buy actions in these countries could generate a return of up to USD 7 - potentially USD 230 billion by 2030.

This investment case looks at how the NCD Best Buys could benefit 76 LICs and LMICs whose populations total almost 4 billion – about half of the people in the world. It also estimates the costs of scaling up the NCD Best Buys in these countries through 2030 and shows the potential health impact when they are fully implemented. The lives saved, diseases avoided and healthy life-years gained are then translated into the economic and social benefits that would have been lost in a business-as-usual scenario where no new or additional action was taken.