Health Financing: What now? What next? Insights from malaria, dengue & Neglected Tropical Diseases

This multi-speaker event on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly (WHA) will create a platform to share first-hand experiences of funding challenges, whether from the recipient or funder’s perspective, as well as discuss needs and new financing strategies or platforms in the wake of decreasing donor funding for climate-sensitive infectious and tropical diseases like malaria, dengue, and NTDs. The event will bring together voices from national governments, innovators, and investors seeking to work together, culminating in a call to action to address these challenges around the world.

Specific objectives include:
•    Provide a stage for policy makers, government leaders, funders and technical experts to share the challenges that their countries, research or programs are facing 
•    Bring together governments, innovators, and investors to discuss opportunities and solutions to these challenges
•    Catalyse discussions around solutions and best practices in order to issue a strong call to action on what is needed to sustain and accelerate health goals.

Draft event agenda​

• Introduction and policy remarks​

• Panel 1: Voices from the Frontlines – Realities of the Current Funding Crisis

This session will spotlight the first-hand experiences of national governments, implementers, and donors grappling with shrinking resources for climate-sensitive infectious diseases like malaria, dengue, and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Speakers will share the real-world impact of donor pullback on national programs and service delivery. The conversation will not only explore the scope of the funding challenge but will also outline where funding is urgently needed to bridge the gap as well as united messages and advocacy to catalyse this. This session sets the stage for a frank discussion about what must change to protect progress and lives.​

• Panel 2: Innovating Financing to Sustain Progress 

This session will explore how innovative and blended financing models from across health, climate, and infrastructure sectors can be adapted and applied to malaria, dengue, and NTDs. Speakers will share examples such as performance-based financing, debt swaps, catalytic capital, and private investment approaches that are unlocking new resources in other domains. The discussion will examine how these mechanisms can be customized to fit the disease control space and what it will take to create enabling environments for such models to thrive. This is a solutions-focused dialogue to move from identifying the problem to scaling what works.​

• Discussion and concluding remarks