WHO Urges Cost-Effective Solutions on NCDs and Mental Health Amidst Slowing Progress
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the third edition of its landmark “Saving Lives, Spending Less“ global investment case, and once again alcohol policy emerges as one of the smartest, most cost-effective investments governments can make.
The brand new report, “Saving Lives, Spending Less: The Global Investment Case for Noncommunicable Diseases”, expands WHO’s evidence base and confirms that the three alcohol policy Best Buys – raising alcohol excise taxes, limiting alcohol availability, and banning alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotion – remain essential measures to prevent and reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The new report outlines why urgent investment in cost-effective interventions for NCDs prevention and control is essential for health and sustainable development. Drawing on the World Health Organization’s package of NCD best buys, the report demonstrates how these evidence-based measures can help countries reduce premature deaths, strengthen health systems, and advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. It provides policymakers, donors, advocates, and partners with a clear economic and social rationale for scaling up implementation of proven solutions.
By framing NCD prevention and control as both a health and development priority, the report offers a roadmap for action that delivers benefits across populations, economies, and generations. The evidence is clear: investing in WHO’s best buys is not only possible – it is imperative. The time to act is now.
The report reveals that an additional investment of just US$3 per person annually in tackling NCDs could yield economic benefits of up to US$1 trillion by 2030.
Alongside the report, WHO also shared new analysis of country-level progress in reducing NCD mortality between 2010 and 2019. While 82% of countries achieved reductions during this period, the rate of progress has slowed significantly across most regions, with some countries even experiencing a resurgence in NCD-related deaths.
NCDs are responsible for the majority of global deaths, while more than one billion people live with mental health conditions. Alarmingly, nearly 75% of deaths related to NCDs and mental health conditions occur in low- and middle-income countries, accounting for 32 million lives lost each year.
Noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions are silent killers, robbing us of lives and innovation,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
We have the tools to save lives and reduce suffering. Countries like Denmark, South Korea, and Moldova are leading the way, while others [are] stalling. Investing in the fight against NCDs isn’t just smart economics – it’s an urgent necessity for thriving societies.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization
Alcohol Policy Key to Saving 12 Million Lives With Affordable and Cost-Effective Solutions
Solutions to tackle NCDs and promote mental health and well-being are both affordable and highly cost-effective. But WHO cautions that governments often face intense interference from powerful industries whose products contribute to disease. Tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food companies frequently attempt to dilute, delay, or even derail life-saving policies – ranging from pro-health taxes to marketing regulations aimed at protecting children.
It is unacceptable that commercial interests are profiting from increasing deaths and disease,” said Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO’s Department of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention.
Governments must put people before profits and ensure evidence-based policy is not derailed by corporate pressure.”
Dr Etienne Krug, Director, Department of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention, World Health Organization
Scaling up implementation of WHO’s ‘Best Buys’, a set of high impact interventions including tobacco and alcohol taxation, protecting children from harmful marketing, managing hypertension, and scaling up cervical cancer screening would yield substantial return on investment.
By 2030, full implementation could:
- save 12 million lives,
- prevent 28 million heart attacks and strokes,
- add 150 million healthy life years, and
- generate over US$1 trillion in economic benefits.
For alcohol policy specifically, the new analysis shows a 9:1 return on investment – every dollar invested in the alcohol policy Best Buys generates nine dollars in social and economic benefits.
This makes alcohol policy one of the top performers across all interventions, surpassing even tobacco control on return on investment and underlining the importance of alcohol policy for sustainable development.
How the Report Addresses Alcohol Harm and Policy Concretely
The report highlights that the increase in the burden of NCDs is being fuelled by various factors, including demographic changes, commercial drivers, and urbanization.
Importantly many NCDs share avoidable risk factors – including tobacco and alcohol use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. These risk factors are driven by commercial practices leading to rising exposure in many places with profound implications for health. Remarkably, the report also identifies the alcohol industry as driver of environmental degradation – in addition to being a driver of poor health.
WHO estimates that the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary beverages alone kills over 10 million people each year.
The WHO return on investment of the NCDs Best Buys analysis now spans 176 Member States across all income groups. This makes the return on investment analysis truly global in scope.
Movendi International has long advocated for WHO to also include evidence and country cases in alcohol policy from high- and upper-middle income countries to more comprehensively assess the return on investment benefits of implementing the alcohol policy best buys.
The report also projects health and economic benefits not only to 2030 but also through 2035 providing a more complete picture of their long-term impact.
The Rapid and Long-Lasting Impact of the Alcohol Policy Best Buys
To help the world tackle the challenge of NCDs, WHO developed the NCD best buys in 2011. An updated list of best buys was endorsed by WHO Member States in 2023. The expanded list consists of interventions that are recommended as cost-effective, feasible actions that should be at the heart of national health policy on NCDs.
The best buys are clustered into seven areas including both prevention (reduce tobacco use, alcohol use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity) and management (manage cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer).
All are firmly evidence-based.
The alcohol policy best buys – re-confirmed by WHO Member States in 2022 when the Global Alcohol Action Plan was adopted and again re-confirmed in 2023 – are: raising alcohol taxes, banning alcohol advertising, and restricting alcohol availability.
The best buys represent excellent value for money. New WHO estimates show the return on investment of the alcohol policy best buys are the second biggest – after the best buys to reduce unhealthy diets. This finding is consistent with previous reports from 2018 and 2021.
The updated estimates in this report show that implementation can have a rapid impact and that significant benefits (particularly of the prevention-oriented best buys such as alcohol policy) will accrue over the long term.
For example, the best buys that generate revenue – such as increasing excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco – bring in money from the moment they are implemented.
This revenue can then be channelled into other best buy interventions a potentially self-sustaining model that is already being put to good use in many countries.
Alcohol Taxation to Mobilise Much-Needed Resources
As countries’ public health budgets face growing and sustained pressure due to competing priorities and broader economic challenges, identifying effective and sustainable mechanisms for cutting avoidable costs and mobilising both domestic and global resources is essential to support national health goals including those related to NCDs.
The new WHO report emphasises the importance of mobilising resources for health, including NCDs prevention and control, domestically – to be sustainable, predictable, and reliable.
Taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages offer a cost-effective strategy for reducing NCD risk while generating revenue. These policies are inexpensive to implement and deliver dual benefits: they reduce consumption – particularly among youth and new users – and the resulting revenues can fund further health initiatives including other NCD best buys.
Globally US$ 3.7 trillion could be raised over five years (US$ 2.1 trillion of which would be in LMICs) by using taxes to increase the real prices of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary beverages by 50%. If this revenue was allocated to health, government health care spending would increase by 12% globally and by 40% in LMICs.
The new WHO report underlines:
Taxes on unhealthy products as recommended in the best buys are an easy, effective, efficient, and acceptable measure. They reduce consumption of such products which helps improve health and they also raise urgently needed revenues that can further support health systems.’
Saving lives, spending less: the global investment case for noncommunicable diseases. Geneva: World Health
Organization; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
But the report cautions:
Although tobacco and alcohol taxes are widespread and countries are increasingly introducing
taxes on sugary drinks, implementation remains uneven. While some countries have adopted recommended tax structures others have failed to keep pace with inflation and income growth reducing the long-term effectiveness of these taxes.
Alcohol Policy Best Buy-Related Country Cases
WHO shares two country examples showcasign the benefits of the alcohol policy best buys.
Lithuania: Successive substantial alcohol excise tax increases between 2015 and 2022 led to a doubling of revenue from the tax which accounted for almost 3% of the country’s total tax revenue by 2022. Alcohol consumption decreased over this time.
Estimates show that the doubling of the tax increase on beer and wine in 2017 helped averted almost 1500 deaths in the following year alone.
Thailand: Between 2001 and 2021, Thailand generated US$ 131 million per year for health promotion and research activities by a 2% increase in tobacco and alcohol taxes. This income is channelled to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation which focuses specifically on NCDs.
This alcohol and tobacco taxation is serving as a model for secure and sustainable financing.
From Health to Development: Investing in People, Communities, and Economies
The 2025 report goes further than previous editions by highlighting the fiscal potential of alcohol taxation. Through WHO’s new “3×35 Initiative”– where Movendi International is a key partner – governments could raise real prices of alcohol, tobacco, and sugary drinks by 50% by 2035 – mobilizing US$ 3.7 trillion globally over five years, of which US$ 2.1 trillion would be in low- and middle-income countries.
Real-world examples underscore these benefits. In Lithuania, successive alcohol tax increases between 2015 and 2022 boosted government revenue and reduced alcohol consumption and related harm, with nearly 1,500 deaths averted in just one year. In Thailand, earmarking a small surcharge on alcohol and tobacco taxes has sustainably financed the Thai Health Promotion Foundation for two decades, generating US$ 131 million annually for health promotion and NCD prevention.
Under Sustainable Development Goal target 3.4 the global community has committed to reducing premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030. With the right policies and sufficient investment many countries could still achieve this target.
But the WHO report underscores the importance of prioritising NCD financing to maximise the impact and cost-effectiveness of investment.
Tackling NCDs means strengthening health systems, regulating unhealthy products, promoting physical activity, improving diets, and reducing tobacco and alcohol use – all of which will also influence the achievement of other SDGs including those on food security, education, gender equality, and sustainable cities.
In short sustainable development cannot be achieved without addressing NCDs.
The Time For Action Is Now
Kristina Sperkova, International President of Movendi International, says:
The 2025 WHO report confirms what Movendi International has long emphasised: alcohol policy is a quadruple-win solution – preventing harm and reducing costs, raising sustainable revenue, financing health and development, and saving lives while advancing social justice.
Across all three editions of the Saving Lives, Spending Less report, the evidence has only grown stronger. Alcohol policy best buys consistently rank among the top performers, delivering the second highest return on investment of any intervention. The new report is also a milestone because it highlights alcohol taxation as indispensable for promoting health, preventing NCDs, and financing the Sustainable Development Goals. With growing budget pressures and rising NCDs, the time to act is now.
Alcohol policy is possible – countries around the world are leading the way. It is beneficial – for people, for economies, and across the SDGs. And it is timely – generating immediate progress that we urgently need.”
Kristina Sperkova, International President, Movendi International
The Saving Lives, Spending Less Report Series
The Report Summary
- A changed global context demands smarter strategies: With declining external aid for health and mounting global health and economic pressures countries need to adapt to the changing landscape. Success now depends on policies that stretch resources further and interventions that are affordable, cost-effective, and scalable. The Best Buys fit this need: they are evidence-based adaptable to diverse settings and proven to deliver both immediate health gains and long-term economic benefits.
- This is an opportunity to save lives: NCDs exact a huge health and economic toll particularly in LMICs – but many deaths can be prevented or delayed. Investing in NCD prevention and care is about saving lives, improving quality of life, extending healthy life years, and driving sustainable development. Over 12 million lives could be saved and 150 million healthy life years gained between 2025 to 2030 through the best buys.
- This is a phenomenal opportunity for investment: Action on NCDs delivers excellent returns with benefits that go far beyond health. By 2030 the best buys can generate US$ 1 trillion in economic benefits – a 4:1 return on investment. Returns grow over time: by 2035 every dollar invested can yield benefits worth seven dollars.
- Financing options exist and some countries are already leading the way: Domestic financing is still the primary route for supporting action on NCDs which means political commitment and political will are crucial. Health taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks both improve health and raise revenue for further investment. Many countries are already showing that the best buys work in practice – from tobacco taxes in Brazil to alcohol taxes in Lithuania and Thailand. The cost is modest averaging just US$ 3 per person globally each year. Donors can catalyse action in other areas: NCDs intersect with climate change, food security, gender equality, and other issues targeted by the SDGs creating multiple entry points for support.
- The time is now: The NCD best buys are essential to achieving the SDGs by 2030 but they also offer benefits extending far beyond this time horizon. 2025 is a fork in the road. The United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs is the time to marshal resources accelerate implementation and commit to a healthier future for all.