Forthcoming event: Extraordinary Meeting of the SEE Ministers of Health, Skopje, 18 November 2014

Background

The year 2014 has been an extremely intensive one for the regional collaboration for health, particularly with regards to the implementation of our Banja Luka Pledge (2011), the SEE 2020 Growth Strategy recently endorsed (22 November 2013) by the SEE Ministers of Economy, and embedding health as separate dimension contributing to the economic development and growth; the EU 2020 Strategy and the WHO Europe Health 2020 Policy Framework (2012) as well as the European Action Plan for Strengthening Public Health Capacities and Services (2012).

Because of the above and in view of the current political, economic, social and health changes that have taken place in the region since the endorsement of the SEE Health Network Memorandum of Understanding in 2008, it is of utmost importance that this Ministerial meeting is conducted accordingly in order to provide for strengthened leadership, managerial and technical opportunities for the Network and the regional cooperation in public health in SEE to develop further.

The purpose of the meeting will be to exchange views, experience and lessons learned with regards to the top common priorities of the SEEHN Member States:

1. Health reforms and the Whole-of-Government approach  to the implementation of the WHO European Policy Framework for health and wellbeing – Health 2020;
2. Human resources for health, their mobility and the educational programmes;
3. Emergencies, preparedness and response in the SEE region.

 The meeting will provide an opportunity to reaffirm our political commitment to the sub-regional collaboration in the SEE, exchange and discuss health reforms in the light of WHO H2020, further extend our collaboration and identify common aims for our countries’ progress in population health and wellbeing toward, also in line with the SEE2020 strategy “Jobs and Prosperity in a European Perspective”. The meeting will explore the SEEHN potential for development of our human resources in health by introducing a scheme of HRH mobility in the SEE targeted at education and training. The effectiveness of our sub-regional collaboration in promoting and protecting health; responding to health hazards; and preventing diseases and controlling their spreads was recently proven in the collaborative response to the flooding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria, in our sub-region. Thus, the meeting offers a unique opportunity to discuss crises coordination aid and establish a task force for this purpose.

The participation of WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr ZsuzsannaJakab as an honoured guest and representative of WHO, at this very important meeting, is in line with the continuous support of the WHO as a key partner in the process of Network establishing, development and functioning, as well as in line with our common Health 2020 goals of improving the health and well-being of populations, reducing health inequalities and strengthening public health.

The specific objectives of the meeting are:

• To express political commitment to the sub-regional collaboration in public health in the SEE;
• To further promote and scale up the political commitment for implementation of the WHO European Policy Framework for health and wellbeing – Health 2020within SEEHN countries within the health reforms of the SEEHN countries;
• To provide for strengthening human resources for health through educational and training programmes and mobility in the SEEHN region and in implementing the SEEHN Decision on the subject of June 2013, Chisinau, republic of Moldova;
• To share country experiences and lessons learnt in addressing crisis health preparedness and response in SEEHN region and improve coordination of aid in times of crises.

The expected outcomes of the meeting are:

• Exchanging views and developing common strategies and approaches towards the implementation of the WHO European Policy Framework for health and wellbeing – Health 2020 in the SEEHN region;
• Strengthened political commitment in SEEHN countries for intergovernmental and intersectoral collaboration to support effective and sustainable human resources for health, their mobility and the educational programmes;
• Creating a mechanism, a Task Force, to be put in place to address crisis health preparedness aid in SEEHN region.