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Ministers from ten countries in the South-Eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN) met in Belgrade on 22-23 June 2015, and agreed on joint regional and national actions towards securing universal health coverage. In addition to promoting an equitable Europe free of impoverishing health expenditures, the Belgrade Statement, endorsed by the ministers, also commits countries to promote and scale up political commitment to implementing Health 2020, and agree on more specific regional actions for strengthening human resources for health and coordinating cross-border support in public health emergencies, among other tasks.
“A year ago I promised the Regional Committee that I would continue to work for improved health outcomes and to link health to equity and also to sustainable development. This is happening more and more in our Region, and our decision-makers are increasingly obliged to take a wider perspective in their work. Coherent, inter-connected government policies – with a strong intersectoral component – are the way forward. This also applies to the SEEHN and individually to your countries” said Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab in her opening speech.
Ministers welcomed the opportunity to exchange views, experiences and lessons learned on the top common priorities for collaboration between the countries. Health systems strengthening, disease prevention, sustainable health financing, health information systems, information exchange, health literacy and intersectoral partnerships, implementing the international health regulations (IHR 2005), immunization rates, and preparation and response in emergencies such as the 2014 floods in the Balkans, were issues raised by countries. Discussions also included enhancing the network’s governance structures at both political and technical level.
Jointly organized by Dr Zlatibor Lončar, Minister of Health of the Republic of Serbia and current President of SEEHN, and Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, the meeting brought together ministers, deputy ministers and state secretaries from the 10 Member States of the South Eastern Europe Health Network.
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The Belgrade Statement
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In view of the need for further strengthening of both regional collaboration for public health and the governance structures of the South-east Europe Health Network, an ad-hoc Meeting of the Ministers of Health of the SEEHN Member Countries titled “Further Steps to Strengthening the SEE Regional Collaboration for Public Health” will be held on 21-23 June 2015 in Belgrade.
Jointly organized by the Regional Director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab and the Minister of Health of the Republic of Serbia and current President of the SEEHN, Dr. Zlatibor Lončar the Ministerial Meeting will precede the 35th Plenary Meeting of the SEEHN to take place on 23-24 June 2015 in the same venue.
During these two important events, relevant stakeholders shall exchange views, experience and lessons learned on the top common priorities of the SEEHN Member States, including the implementation of WHO Europe Health2020 and the Health dimension objectives and measures of the SEE 2020 Strategy. By determining the next intersectoral actions for health, the high-level representatives of the SEEHN Member States and the WHO Regional Office for Europe will have an excellent opportunity to reaffirm their countries’ political commitment for strengthened intergovernmental and inter-sectoral collaboration towards health and health systems improvement in the Region.
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On May 14-15, 2015 the National Health Coordinators, Executive Committee members and technical experts of the SEE Health Network got together with the WHO Regional Office for Europe technical experts in the Preparatory Meeting of the SEE Health Network, met in Jahorina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina to finalize preparations towards the Ad-hoc meeting of the Ministers of Health of the Members States of the SEE Health Network, and the 35th SEEHN Plenary session, to be held back to back between 21-25 June, 2015 in Belgrade, Serbia. The Ministerial meeting of the SEEHN Member States is jointly called and organized by the Minister of Health of the Republic of Serbia and current President of the Network, Dr. Zlatibor Lonchar, and WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab.
The Preparatory meeting was kindly organized and financed by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) in cooperation with the SEEHN Executive Committee. WHO Regional Office for Europe provided substantial political and technical support to the meeting.
Preparatory meeting scoped panel and group work over all the issues that will be taken aboard the SEEHN Belgrade event, and among others: discussing the implementation of WHO Europe Health2020, the Health dimension objectives and measures of the SEE 2020 Strategy, developing project proposals and revising the implementation report 2014; 4th SEE Health Ministers Forum, to be held in 2016; strengthened governance of the SEE Health Network; follow-up on the Ministers’ decisions from the Skopje Ministerial meeting in November, 2014; follow-up to the EC TAIEX and WHO Europe technical multi-country workshops in 2015, and many others.
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Background
Years 2014 and 2015 have been and will be extremely intensive years for the regional collaboration for health, particularly with regards to the implementation of the Banja Luka Pledge (2011), the SEE 2020 Growth Strategy recently endorsed (22 November 2013) by the SEE Ministers of Economy, and embedding health as separate dimension contributing to the economic development and growth; the EU 2020 Strategy and the WHO Europe Health 2020 Policy Framework (2012) as well as the European Action Plan for Strengthening Public Health Capacities and Services (2012).
Because of the above and in view of the current political, economic, social and health changes that have taken place in the region since the endorsement of the SEE Health Network Memorandum of Understanding in 2008, it is of utmost importance that this Ministerial meeting is conducted accordingly in order to provide for strengthened leadership, managerial and technical opportunities for the Network and the regional cooperation in public health in SEE to develop further.
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