Building the Capacity for Public Health and Health Promotion in Central and Eastern Europe [antikvár]

EuroHealthNet's mission inc.udes improving hea.th equity within and between countries. For the past decade, our members have consistently prioritised networking and support for common and emerging hea.th prob.ems and needs across Europe. During that time it has been obvious that health promotion structures, processes, policies and approaches are far from alike, although common concepts are recognised. With the enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 27 member states in the past few years, it has become clear that health promotion and public health systems in many countries can benefit from more structured exchanges and development. The opportunity provided by the European Commission in its Public Health Action Programme, to carry out an appraisal of the needs of ten countries and to stimulate action to address those needs, has been a valuable process. This report summarises what the participants in the project have shared in knowledge and how already some improvements are being signalled, which is encouraging. The major transition from command to market economies and consequential effects on health systems is well documented and will in all probability last a generation. But massive strides have been made in understanding and developing work on the economic, social and environmental determinants of health in addition to the lifestyle risk factors where the EU has taken an increasingly prominent role in recent times. Institutional capacity building, governance, professional training and inter-sectoral collaboration are all key building blocks of health improvement progress. The five key action areas emphasised in this document: organisational change, workforce development, resource allocation, leadership and partnerships, contribute to that construction process in concrete ways. This should be seen as a step towards health promotion objectives, set out in the global framework established by the WHO Ottawa Charter and recently updated by its successor Bangkok Charter, taking into account emerging concepts of globalisation and equity. EU ministers have put on record their commitment to an approach embracing health in all policies, and what this report makes clear is that there remains much to do. But the overwhelming purpose of this project has been a positive, "can do" approach. It is not prescriptive, recognising the diversity of the participant states, nor is it patronising by suggesting that the other EU states are any better. Indeed there is much learning from