The review outlines national and local policy actions from across Europe aligned with ECHO’s six recommended areas: healthy food environments, physical activity promotion, preconception and pregnancy care, early childhood health, school-based health promotion, and weight management services. Countries have implemented a range of financing approaches, combining regulatory, fiscal, and programmatic investments to address those issues.

A key fiscal measure has been the use of health taxes, particularly on sugar-sweetened beverages. Countries such as Portugal, Hungary and the United Kingdom introduced such taxes both to discourage consumption and to generate public revenue. In the UK and Hungary, revenues have been partially reinvested into health promotion programmes, creating a dual financial and behavioural impact. Hungary implemented a broader public health product tax, further expanding the fiscal base for prevention.

In parallel, governments have financed national strategies and prevention programmes through public budgets. For example, France funds its National Nutrition and Health Programme (PNNS), while Portugal supports an integrated strategy for healthy eating involving multiple ministries. These approaches rely on sustained public investment and coordination across sectors such as health, education, and agriculture.

At the local level, municipalities have mobilised blended and cross-sectoral funding. The Amsterdam Healthy Weight Programme in the Netherlands combines municipal budgets with national support and in-kind contributions from local partners. Similarly, countries such as Ireland and Italy have financed community-based, family-centred interventions on weight management through public health systems.

Additional investments have been made in infrastructure and enabling environments, such as active transport and school-based programmes, often funded through a mix of national budgets, EU funding streams, and local authority resources.

Private sector involvement has primarily occurred through regulatory frameworks rather than direct co-financing. Governments have introduced measures such as sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, mandatory product reformulation, and restrictions on marketing to children, which impose financial and operational constraints on industry actors. While these measures generate public revenue and incentivise healthier product offerings, they do not constitute voluntary private investment in prevention, and dedicated co-financing arrangements between the public and private sectors remain limited.