The South Eastern European Journal of Public Health (SEEJPH) published the “Ten years onwards: Comparison of the South Eastern European regional public health strategy 2004 and the South Eastern European 2020 strategy” article, written by Christiane Wiskow, Maria Ruseva and Ulrich Laaser, which strives to show the ongoing regional collaboration that has continuously contributing to the development of the public health in the South Eastern Europe (SEE) region since 2000 when the public health collaboration in SEE (PH-SEE) was initiated.
This article gives an overview of the two frameworks for regional collaboration in the area of public health, such is the framework developed in 2004 by a network of public health professionals and academics, and another one developed by the SEE Health Network as an integral part of the SEE 2020 strategy, both with reviewed situation analysis using the SWOT methodology.
The comparison is made regardless the differences in structure and wording, showing that both strategies are consistent in the majority of their goals and actions which includes improving equity in health with a focus on vulnerable and low-income groups, hence improving health for all, strengthening human resources for health and public health, respectively and strengthening and improving intersectoral cooperation and governance. In addition to the commonalities, there are also apparent differences between the two strategies in the aspects of social participation, regional public health information, the cross-border public health and the quality improvement.
Nevertheless, despite the time lag of nearly ten years, the commonalities of the strategies for regional public health collaboration are very significant and the differences between them are partially due to the different development context. The authors of this article are giving conclusion that the collaboration between the two networks, FPH-SEE and SEEHN particularly in the area of public health education, could be of mutual benefit and will contribute in further strengthening for the improvement of regional health information.
On the link below you can read the full article published on the SEEJPH
