Evidencing value of public health programmes to enable sustainable investment for health & wellbeing

Abstract

Issue Global sustainability challenges related to health, inequity, the environment and the economy require urgent innovative action and focus on prevention. Fair evidence-informed prioritisation of scarce resources is pivotal to ensure sustainable investment policies and practices. It is key to capture the value and return on investment of public health (prevention) programmes in order to show their wider benefit to people, communities, society, economy and our planet. Description The Evidencing Value project builds on a global and national drive towards measuring the value of health services and interventions. The World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Investment in Health and Well-being (WHO CC) is developing an innovative approach and digital solution to assess the holistic (economic, social and environmental) value and return on investment of public health programmes. It uses a Social Return on Investment (SROI) approach, which involves key stakeholders from the beginning and measures what matters most. This helps to identify the wider impact and outcomes of different health protection, disease prevention and health promotion programmes. The evidence is embedded in an interactive digital database to inform investment prioritisation and quality improvement. Results Project outputs include: (i) structured evidence repository detailing the value of public health services and interventions; (ii) interactive digital database for storage, manipulation and presentation of data; (iii) SROI pilots; and (iv) generalised framework for investing in public health/prevention to be used by other public bodies and countries. Lessons It is essential to understand the wider impact and value of public health programmes to facilitate Universal Health Coverage and sustainable investment for health and wellbeing. This project uses an innovative approach and digital solution to enable evidence informed resource allocation and decision-making focused on prevention. Key messages Evidencing value of public health supports the case for investing in prevention. Using innovative methods and digital solutions is essential to inform sustainable investment for health.