NDPHS Spring NewsletterIssue 1, March 2019

Chair’s Conclusions – 6th Senior Officials’ Meeting of the Renewed Northern Dimension

NDPHS Secretariat attended the 6th Meeting of the Senior Officials of the renewed Northern

Dimension that took place on March 5th in Brussels. The meeting was hosted by the EuropeanUnion and attended by the Senior Officials of the four Northern Dimension partners - theEuropean Union, Iceland, Norway and the Russian Federation. The Senior Officials took note of the information presented by the Northern DimensionPartnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS). They agreed that the NDPHSprovides a unique platform for concerted action in the area of health and social well-being throughbetter collaboration and coordination of international activities, as well as by bringing togetherexperts from the region to learn from each other. They welcomed the NDPHS’ cooperation withother important regional actors, including the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). The Senior Officials welcomed the results of the NDPHS’ recent work in the areas of antimicrobialresistance, tuberculosis and HIV, non-communicable diseases, primary health care andoccupational health, as well as the successful ministerial-level Annual Partnership Conference inTallinn on 9February, 2018 that adopted “the NDPHS Declaration on Alcohol Policy”. ThePartnership’s work will contribute to international and governmental organisations and policymakers to make evidence-based decisions. The Senior Officials welcomed the future plans of theNDPHS, in particular the ongoing work towards developing a common NDPHS framework for ahorizontal programme addressing population ageing and the continuing work of the ExpertGroups towards improved health and social well-being, and called on the NDPHS to furtherpursue this approach, also through the broader cooperation with regional partners. Read more about the Meeting and the progress of each of the Partnerships here

7th Meeting of the Expert Group on Prison Health On March 12-13th, 7th Meeting of the Expert Group on Prison Health (PH EG) took place in

Stockholm, Sweden. For several years now, PH EG of NDPHS (currently chaired by Germany)has been actively working on increasing the efficiency of the health and social care systems, inparticular - strengthening the primary health care for it to correspond to the needs of prisoners,which is one of the most vulnerable groups of our population. At the meeting, existing progress ofthe Expert Group was discussed, country reports from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia,Germany and Poland were presented to the participants, the upcoming WHO Prison HealthConference was announced. One important topic that was heavily discussed at the meeting werethe different pharmacological options of opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) that are currentlyavailable in prisons of ND region, and exchange of the opinions on how to better address thisproblem in all the countries of the Northern Dimension. The Experts also visited KronobergRemand Prison in the center of Stockholm to observe the example of good healthcare practices inprison settings. More information and additional documents from the meeting can be found here.

Prison Health Expert Group of NDPHS visiting Kronoberg Remand Prison

EU Citizen Dialogue – discussing the Future of the EU On March 15th, NDPHS Secretariat participated in the EU Citizen Dialogue with VytenisAndriukaitis, Commissioner responsible for Health and Food Safety and Andrea Ammon, Directorof the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Topics such as ageing of thepopulation in Europe and a great number – 1.2 million! – of avoidable premature deaths led tofurther discussion on better health promotion and disease prevention actions on both national andEU levels. Prevention of infectious diseases through vaccination programmes and the growingproblem of vaccine hesitancy, promotion of good health through healthy lifestyles – better nutritionand physical activity – are all aspects where EU policies can and do play an important role,according to the Commissioner Andriukaitis. Other important public health challenges such as antimicrobial resistance and the misuse of

antimicrobials in both healthcare settings and in animal agriculture were actively discussed. TheDirector of ECDC Andrea Ammon pointed out, that the Joint Action Plan of European Commissionaddresses both of these issues simultaneously, and the European One Health Action Plan againstAntimicrobial Resistance (AMR) recognises that human and animal health are interconnected,that diseases are transmitted from humans to animals and vice versa and must, therefore, betackled in both. AMR Expert Group of NDPHS also supports such an approach, as, in order tocombat antimicrobial resistance, more inter-sectoral efforts supporting the implementation ofregional and global strategies on AMR are needed. The rest of the lively discussions between different stakeholders that took place in Europahuset inStockholm can be found here.

EU Commissioner Andriukaitis at the EU Dialogue in Stockholm

A new Policy Brief from NDPC: "Designing Innovative Public Services" A sister organisation of NDPHS - the Northern Dimension Partnership in Culture (NDPC) - hasrecently published a policy brief based on the ND Future Forum on Culture. The policy briefemphasizes the need to design innovative public services to address some of the most pressingsocietal challenges,

"Contemporary challenges in the Northern Dimension due to the rapid development oftechnologies that blur the boundaries between the government and citizens, and because ofsocietal changes such as ageing of the population and increasing immigration flows areincreasingly sophisticated and complex. These challenges are calling the governments toinnovate novel solutions that enable the production of public services in a more user-friendly andcost-effective way. This implies re-thinking the very rationale of public service, viewing it as acollective effort of societal actors. The novel approach calls for replacing the traditional top-downthinking with design thinking that puts end-users’ needs at the centre of the policy formulationsystem".

Read the whole policy brief here.

NDPC Policy Brief

The Northern Dimension Institute (NDI) Policy Brief: "Healthy Ageing Calls for a HolisticApproach" NDPHS took part in the Northern Dimension Future Forum on "Health: Healthy Ageing" that tookpart in November in Vantaa, Finland. Organized by The Northern Dimension Institute (NDI), theForum resulted in the Policy Brief "Healthy Ageing Calls for a Holistic Approach". NDPHS willbring more examples of the new types of research-based solutions that ensure access toindividual health and social services, social activities, and engagement of the elderly in the designof age-friendly environments, as depicted in the NDI Policy Brief. Read the whole Policy Brief here. Presentations and summary of the Northern Dimension FutureForum on Health are available here.

"Healthy Ageing calls for a Holistic Approach" Policy Brief