The Norwegian WHO Healthy Cities Network has joined forces with its fellow networks in Denmark and Sweden to contribute to the development of a new course, the aim of which is to build competencies and know-how among those working to improve health and well-being and reduce health inequities at a local level.
Today, resilience has become a sort of buzzword in academia as well as in a wide range of policy contexts. Many people at all levels speak about resilience, often incorrectly and/or without defining it. Despite some differences, there is agreement in the scientific literature that resilience is related to processes and skills that influence good individual and community health outcomes, in spite of negative events, serious threats and hazards.
In February 2016 the Durrës Regional Health Directorate (Albania) – in collaboration with the country’s Ministry of Health and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office, the Institute of Public Health, Durrës Municipality, and Shijak Municipality – presented a joint intervention programme for the improvement of maternal and child health in the former Durrës District (now Durrës County). This new social model of health has become the new health policy framework in the Durrës Regional Health Directorate.
The Department of Health and Social Welfare of the Ticino Region, Switzerland, initiated the “Girasole” project, a pilot project that promotes healthy behaviours, in particular physical activity for the adult population aged between 40 and 75 years. Collaboration with family physicians is crucial, since they are in the privileged position to raise awareness among patients on what can effectively improve health and increase well-being.
As part of the project co-founded with the EU – “Gemeinsam Grenzenlos Gesund” (Unlimited Health Together) – Lower Austria cooperates with its Czech border regions South Moravia and South Bohemia. In the last 8 years many pioneering EU projects have been conducted in this border region, with the project Gemeinsam Grenzenlos Gesund making another step for long-term practical cross-border cooperation.
The Wales Celebration Conference “Networks and Partnerships: Wales Collaborating for Global Health”, held on the 27 March 2017 in the Future Inns, Cardiff Bay focused on how to maximize the benefits of national and international networks, building active and sustainable partnerships and collaborations as well as celebrating the progress made in the implementation of the Charter for International Health Partnerships in Wales (the Charter) and how it contributes to the global health and sustainable development agenda.
In 2016, countries of the WHO European Region recognized that the Health 2020 policy framework and related World Health Assembly and Regional Committee resolutions provide a strong foundation upon which to position health at the centre of initiatives to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Many people attended the inauguration of the new premises of the WHO Venice Office, which took place on 19 January in the magnificent location of the Ss Giovanni e Paolo Hospital, Venice, Italy, thanks to fruitful collaboration between the Veneto Region and the ULSS3 Serenissima.
Representatives of the Regions for Health Network attended the Global Health Diplomacy Course for Small Countries, Nicosia, Cyprus in March 2017. The course, organized by Graduate Institute Geneva (GIG), is part of the WHO EURO initiative to build capacity in global health diplomacy across the Region.
The 23rd annual meeting of the WHO Regions for Health Network took place in Kaunas Region, Lithuania, on 22–23 September 2016. The main theme was the integration of efforts at international, national and subnational levels to achieve the objectives of Health 2020 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
On 6–7 July 2016, the WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development, Venice, Italy, of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, within the framework of the WHO Regions for Health Network, hosted a summer school in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to facilitate an exchange of experience in the translation and communication of health information and data for different target audiences.
