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Recognizing the fundamental importance of a sustainable and well-performing health workforce which is the backbone of an effective health system, as well as the need to address health workforce challenges in countries and introduce mechanisms to improve and promote relevant health workforce policies, the SEEHN Regional Health Development Centre on Human Resources for Health (HPH), established in 2013 in the Republic of Moldova, organized a Multi-country Workshop titled “Health Workforce – from Challenges to Solutions”.
Implemented in collaboration with and under the technical guidance of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the workshop took place on November 10-11, 2014 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Gathering national focal points on HRH, policy-makers and researchers dealing with health workforce issues, the workshop aimed at shaping the agenda for action in the SEEHN countries. More precisely, its purpose was to take stock of recent evidence on effective health workforce strategies in order to increase technical capacity in SEEHN countries and to strategize their collaborative efforts to support effective and sustainable health workforce development in the SEE region.
Therefore, the workshop participants used the opportunity to review the current progress and challenges in the health workforce development in SEEHN countries, including the implementation of the WHO Code of Practice, and shared their experiences and lessons learnt in addressing health workforce challenges in Europe with a focus on health workforce mobility.
Also presented were a methodology and a questionnaire for assessing the situation in the SEE countries regarding the harmonization and mutual recognition of health professionals’ qualifications in Europe to be performed with EC TAIEX support. The general concept of the First SEE Forum of Health Educational Institutions in South East Europe to take place in Varna, Bulgaria in 2015 as well as drafting outline of a SEEHN strategy and action plan on strengthening human resources for health (2014-2020) in line with the SEEHN Decision and the SEE 2020 Strategy were part of the workshop agenda as well.
The workshop encouraged strengthened political commitment in SEEHN countries which is essential to effective and sustainable health workforce development, one of the key strategic actions of the health dimension in the Inclusive Growth Pillar of the recently approved SEE 2020 Strategy “Jobs and Prosperity in the European Perspective.”
The workshop was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health of Slovenia and co-sponsored by the Technical Programme on Human Resources for Health (HRH) at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen.
News
Having become a strong partner in health collaboration at European level and having obtained a growing influence on the European health policy agendas in the past 10 years, the South-Eastern Europe Health Network together with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe and the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland organized an executive course on health diplomacy in action on October 15-17, 2014 in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.
Global health diplomacy (GHD) is considered important since it brings together the disciplines of public health, international affairs, management, law and economics and focuses on negotiations that shape and manage the global policy environment for health.
Hence, the course on health diplomacy in action aimed at capturing and further developing the capacities and skills required to achieve health improvement in the South Eastern European Region at different levels.
Comprised of lectures, roundtables and group activities, this three-day long training course provided insight into the concept and principles of global health diplomacy, the selected priority areas of current GHD negotiations, the possible SEEHN approaches applicable to the current situation in the Region and the new instruments, methods and systems of diplomacy.
It gathered over 40 high-level representatives from the SEEHN member countries and a variety of lecturers and experts who discussed the diplomatic and security challenges in the Region and the importance of policy coherence for health diplomacy. By fostering interaction and communication between the participants in mixed working groups, the course helped the diplomatic and health professionals understand their common interests in health as a foreign policy issue, and thus provided for a stronger regional cooperation in public health in the SEE.
Furthermore, it contributed to capacity building in achieving better global and national health performance, and provided instruments and mechanisms for multilateral negotiations for health in both health and non-health organizations towards achieving and holding positions in boards, assemblies and reconciling global health and national interests.
This course was implemented with technical and financial support by WHO/EURO as part of the project “Developing and sustaining the institutional capacities for regional cooperation in public health in SEEHN”, and kindly donated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
The course policy briefing for SEEHN, titled Building Regional Capacity in Global Health: The Role of the South-Eastern Europe Health Network, is available at the following link.
News
As a main contributor and promoter of the health dimension in the SEE 2020 Strategy, the South East Europe Health Network participated in the leading health policy event in the EU – the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) – which was held on October 1-3, 2014 in the Gastein Valley in Austria.
Gathering nearly 600 experts as well as an unparalleled mix of participants, EHFG has proved to be, for 17 years in a row, the chief platform for decision-makers in various fields of public health & health care.
This year’s EHFG program included a joint session organized by SEEHN and its partners WHO EURO and Studiorum. Titled “Health for Jobs and prosperity in SEE”, the session offered a presentation and discussion of the South East Europe (SEE) Growth Strategy and the policy commitment of South Eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN) to promote the values of health, equity and wellbeing as an indispensable part of the growth and development processes across the SEE Region.
Nand Shani, Senior Expert on Inclusive Growth in the Regional Cooperation Council and Goran Cerkez, Federal Ministry of Health of Bosnia and Herzegovina and representative of the SEEHN Executive Committee, elaborated on the importance of regional cooperation for health-supported inclusive growth in SEE.
Official regional dimension coordinator since 2010, the SEEHN has helped to create dialogue and stronger relationships between the economic, development and health sectors with the sole purpose of improving health and reducing health inequities within and between countries.
Tourism, employment and IT technology were identified as priority sectors for growth in the SEE Region. While sustainable tourism depends on aspects of environment, agriculture, transport, employment and health, the new technologies can prove beneficial to both health and employment opportunities and thus contribute to achieving economic and health targets. In return, a well-functioning health system was once again underlined as crucial for creating consumer confidence, especially in the tourist sector, as it enables not only higher level of sense of security and safety among the industry and consumers when coming to the region, but also inclusive growth.
Also discussed during this session was the involvement of multilateral bodies which have made important contributions to past and current progress. However, given the facts that for many countries the accession to the EU is a main driver for policy reforms and that health has a low profile in the EU2020 high level targets and goals, there is need to bring health more sharply into the accession process through instruments such as the national and regional plans for pre-accession and the related funding mechanisms.
Titled “Health as an entry point for national and local development and well-being”, the second part of the session offered real world experiences from Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia.
Tatjana Buzeti, Centre for Health and Development in Murska Sobota, Slovenia and Andrej Vrsic, Director of the Local Tourist Board in Slovenia showed how health and economic growth can be combined in practice. In the case of Slovenia this was done by promoting sustainable tourism in the North-Eastern wine region, which has also a long tradition in health spa tourism. By putting the focus on active free time and by investing in human capital and infrastructure, not only has this region been redefined and repositioned as a tourist destination, but also the life-style of inhabitants has been improved.
Adriana Galan, National Institute of Public Health, Romania, presented a project focused on vulnerable groups in rural areas. By providing them with entrepreneurial skills to set up their own business, which has resulted in 40 start-ups to this date, the project succeeded at making them understand the links between health and employment. In order to overcome emigration of medical doctors and address existing gaps in the health care system, the Institute also plans to develop partnerships of the healthcare sector with social and education sectors.
Finally, Natasa Terzic, Director of the Centre for Health System Development, Institute of Public Health, Montenegro, shared the best practices from her country. Recognizing that many of the health-related challenges such as demographic ageing and health inequalities cannot be solved by the health care sector alone, a platform for sustainable development was created so to strengthen the perception of health as a tool for growth in other sectors, such as employment. Although it remains necessary to first strengthen the health care system per se before collaborating with any other sector towards enhancing prosperity, this platform is crucial as it brought health to the agenda for the first time in such a context.
The productive session was closed with suggestions to involve academia for evaluating network’s experiences, to include social affairs and to even further strengthen the partnerships with the social sector.
The recordings of the Opening and Closing Plenary sessions of this year’s EHFG can be found here whereas the webcast of the entire SEEHN session is available at EHFG 2014 Workshop 7.
The European Health Forum Gastein is supported by the European Commission and the Austrian Ministry of Health. Its 18th edition will take place between September 30th and October 2nd, 2015.
