{"id":3643,"date":"2023-12-15T11:50:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T10:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/health-inequalities.eu\/financing-e-guide\/?p=3643"},"modified":"2023-12-15T12:02:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T11:02:49","slug":"invest4health-mobilising-novel-finance-models-for-health-promotion-and-disease-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/health-inequalities.eu\/financing-e-guide\/invest4health-mobilising-novel-finance-models-for-health-promotion-and-disease-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Invest4Health: Mobilising novel finance models for health promotion and disease prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>The Invest4Health<\/a> project (2023-2026), funded by Horizon Europe, aims to revolutionize public health financing by identifying and incentivizing new finance and business models for health promotion and disease prevention, under the concept of \u2018Smart Capacitating Investment\u2019. The project will develop and test models, alternative governance mechanisms and tools, and methods to facilitate the use of Smart Capacitating Investment for health promotion and disease prevention. These include cost-effective strategies that span multiple sectors to share risks, pool assets, and analyse return on investment to ensure efficient utilisation of all available resources.<\/p>\n

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At present, healthcare budgets across Europe are overwhelmingly spent on treatment of disease, with an average of only 3% spent on health promotion and disease prevention. 1<\/a><\/sup>[i] European Commission (2018) State of the Health in the EU, Companion Report.<\/span>\u00a0Yet a growing burden of preventable diseases and widening health inequalities across Europe illustrate that present approaches to financing are unsustainable and not fit for purpose. The fiscal space for governments to invest in health has also been shrinking; even pre-pandemic, public investment in social infrastructure (e.g., health, education, affordable housing) was 20% lower than before the 2008 financial crisis.2<\/a><\/sup>2018 \u2013 Fransen L, del Bufalo G and Reviglio E. Boosting investment in Social Infrastructure in Europe: Report of the High-Level Task Force on Investing in social infrastructure in Europe. European Economy Discussion Paper 074, Luxembourg. Note: SHCN team members were part of the Task Force Secretariat, coordinated both expert working groups and J Lane was \u00a0a member of the HLTF<\/span> 3<\/a><\/sup>[iii] EIB (2017) Investment Report 2017-2018, November, EIB: Luxembourg<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

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What is \u2018Smart Capacitating Investment?\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The term Smart Capacitating Investment (SCI) was first used by the High-Level Task Force for Social Infrastructure Investment initiated by the European Long-Term Investors Association (ELTI), which explored ways to enhance public and private investments in social infrastructure (Fransen et al 2018).<\/p>\n

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Smart Capacitating Investment makes the most of existing resources (including financial and non-financial assets) and builds partnerships between different sectors (e.g., public, private, voluntary, or housing, health, environment) to make investments that generate sustained returns and localised benefits to improve health and wellbeing, thereby making health systems more sustainable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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During the Invest4Health project, the concept of Smart Capacitating Investment will be further defined, and \u2018SCI-compatible\u2019 business and finance models will be identified and promoted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Invest4Health promotes the use of new models and mindsets to achieve sustainable return on investment from health promotion and disease prevention.<\/strong> The consortium, led by Region Sk\u00e5ne in Sweden, combines interdisciplinary expertise with four real-world pilot sites (or \u2018testbeds\u2019) to develop new financing models, foster practical implementation and ensure community involvement. The project is exploring various mechanisms for delivering health promotion and disease prevention, including public, private (for-profit, not-for-profit), and ethical, equitable Public-Private Partnerships. The project also includes a focus on primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention (figure 1), as well as interventions focused on key determinants of health (e.g., housing, education, transport, and environment). These models will be evaluated and validated, thereby offering decision-makers and policymakers resources and tools to prioritise and for health promotion and disease prevention at all levels.<\/p>\n

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The goal is to deliver tangible results through validated models and tools, encouraging decision-makers to prioritize risk-sharing and resource pooling for health initiatives<\/strong>. The project also emphasizes citizen science, a digital collaborative space for decision-making, and the social franchising approach to ensure the active involvement of communities in promoting health and preventing diseases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

Structure of the Invest4Health Project<\/h3>\n
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The Invest4Health project has three main work streams:<\/p>\n