During the workshop the discussionsnwill be focused on the challenges as: health promotion and preventionnthroughout life-course, workforce shortages, aging population, patientncommitment to treatment and continuity of care and high quality andncost-effective care and services, working in shifts and working hours.
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SEEHN Member States and Turkey participants will be introduced with the EU experience and in particular, Directive 2003/88/EC and Directive 2000/34/EC, lessons learned and policy options for nursing; the role of competent authorities and professional organizations in the legislation adjustment on working time and nursing and the implications for the SEEHN member states.
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The expected outcome of the technicalnmeeting is to identify common challenges, threats for health and safety ofnnurses in the SEE region and to propose a set of recommendations with clearncommitments on how to harmonize with the EU requirements with the ultimate goalnto unlock nurses’ potential and empower them to excel within the HealthnSystems.
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This TAIEX event is supported by the ECnwith joint effort of the SEEHN Secretariat, the technical expertise of thenSEEHN Regional Health Development Centern(RHDC) in Human Resources in Health, hosted by Republic of Modlova andnthe Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection of the Republic ofnMoldova.
On the occasion of the World Health Day 2018, SEEHN Secretariat and Regional Health Development Center on Public Health Services hosted by the Institute of Public Health in Skopje, marked the event on Thursday, April 5th at the Best Western Hotel Turist in Skopje.
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World Health Organization established April 7th as World Health Day 70 years ago and this year the theme and slogan was “Universal Health Coverage: everyone, everywhere. Health for All”
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Addressing the audience Dr. Mira Jovanovski-Dasic, Director of SEEHN Secretariat, underlined that all countries of the SEE region share common economic, environmental, demographic, political, challenges which all combined make a huge impact and diminish universal access to healthcare services, essential quality care and financial protection thus ultimately determining a huge gap of 10 years less in life expectancy comparing to the ones in the EU region.
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SEEHN will work intensively with its Member States in the forthcoming period for further upgrading public health services moving towards achieving its commitments from the Chisinau Pledge, which focus on:
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Striving universal health coverage for our populations
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Increasing public financing for health
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Sustaining and strengthening the regional cooperation in public health
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Working more closely and efficiently with our partners.
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This is what we all can do to achieve UHC at the regional, governmental, individual level by spotting policy-makers’ power to transform the health of their nation and to invite them to be part of the change; by sharing examples on the progress achieved towards UHC and encourage others to find their own path; by providing tools for structured policy dialogue on how to advance UHC nationally and by supporting such efforts at the regional level ( through expanding service coverage, improving quality of services, reducing out-of-pocket payments) pointed out Dr. Mira Jovanovski-Dasic.
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She reiterated that SEEHN is committed to further supporting and working in this area and to spreading best practices in every possible occasion.
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Our efforts aim to enhance people’s health, and the 2018 slogan “Health for All” shall be the headline of our daily activities that ultimately will drive changes for the other half of population to enjoy high qualitative healthcare services, concluded Dr. Mira Jovanovski-Dasic.
The South‐eastern European countries are coming together in Podgorica, Montenegro on 21 February 2018 to develop a regional action plan for 2 years with specific strategic objectives and activities to implement the Chisinau Pledge.
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Nine Member States (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Israel, Montenegro, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)are part of the South-eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN).They signed in April 2017 the Chisinau Pledge committing to join action in collaboration with WHO and partners on a range of issues. The objective of the meeting in Podgorica is to discuss how WHO can support the network in implementing these commitments during the 2018-2019 biennium.
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“The Chisinau Pledge is an important instrument to ensure the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the sub-region,” says Dr Lucianne Licari, SEEHN Special Representativeof the Regional Director of in the WHO Regional Office for Europe. “WHO as a key partner of the network continues to provide technical support required to Member States, not only through the Biennial Collaborative Agreements (BCAs) signed with individual countries but also in multi-country collaborations across the network.”
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National Health Coordinators of the network and SEE representatives of Regional Health Development Centres will participate in the meeting, along with representatives of WHO from the Regional Office for Europe. They will discuss opportunities for achieving the goals and strategic objectivesof the Chisinau Pledge in the SEE region and reaching an agreementon the way forward to address commonchallenges.
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“The SEEHN network is dependent on the support of the partner organizations in implementing the commitments made in the Chisinau Pledge,” says Dr Mira Jovanovski Dasic, Head of the Secretariat of the Network. “We appreciate the long-standing partnership we have with WHO and the support the network receives from WHO. We hope other partners of the network will follow the WHO example in supporting the implementation of the pledge.”
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The Chisinau Pledge calls upon joint action of the Member states withpartners on:
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1. Sustaining and strengthening the regional cooperation in public health by takingdeliberate action to influence governance in other policy arenas to promote and protect health, and
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2. Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by taking advantage of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to renew countries’ commitments to health and to seek intersectoral action to advance the priorities of the European Health 2020 policy framework towards 2030.
The conference, attended by the representatives of SEEHN, has been organized under the auspices of the Presidency of Bulgaria of the Council of the EU.
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Obesity among children was spotted as an increasing challenge in the European Region. Thus, healthy nutrition was chosen as a priority to focus on and to promote among European nations. As the majority of the SEEHN Member States aspire to accede to the EU and also encounter the same challenges, the participation of SEEHN was an opportunity to exchange information, best practices and policies in order to improve the health choices on nutrition for the younger generations.
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Many aspects of the healthy nutrition have been discussed including the impact of nutrition and food on health: ranging from breastfeeding to epigenetics, healthy eating habits as key health determinant, options on regulating marketing of foods intended for children, Mediterranean diet, Nordic diet, “Baltic diet”,”Balkan diet”- traditional diets and foods and their impact on health, success stories: best practices at national, European and Global level.
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day, commemorated each 12 December, is the anniversary of the first unanimous United Nations resolution calling for countries to provide affordable, quality health care to every person, everywhere.nnUHC has been included in the new Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations and it means everyone can access the quality health services they need without financial hardship and is a means to promote the human right to health.nnUHC is for:nnWHO: All people, including the poorest and most vulnerable.nnWHAT: Full range of essential health services, including prevention, treatment, hospital care and pain control.nnHOW to achieve UHC: Costs shared among entire population through pre- payment and risk-pooling, rather than shouldered by the sick. Access should be based on need and unrelated to ability to pay.nn
The South-eastern Health Network (SEEHN) is pleased to announce the designation of a New Regional Health Development Centre on Sexual and Reproductive Health, hosted by the East European Institute of Reproductive Health (EEIRH) in Romania.nRomania is a strong example of success and continued regional cooperation in the area of sexual and reproductive health. In its capacity as EU Member State, Romania is ready to share with its partners in the Network the experience gathered during the accession and integration process and to promote the EU principles and policies in this particular health area.nIn the last 20 years, the East European Institute of Reproductive Health in Romania has been providing valuable technical assistance in sexual and reproductive health to countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including several SEEHN Member States. EEIRH is also acting as a UNFPA regional partner, promoting the right of women and men to sexual and reproductive health, the right to a life without gender-based violence and to a healthy and dignified ageing. To fulfill this mission, EEIRH provides policy advisory work, consultancy and technical assistance, develops and implements research, training and communication programmes and projects. In all its activities, EEIRH promotes dialogue, partnerships and international cooperation with commitment to supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goals 3 and 5, through the combined efforts of governments, civil society organizations and the private sector, in the context of a stronger and more effective partnership for development.
World Health Organization to commemorate the World AIDS Day this year choose to focus the on everybody live counts through the theme “Right to health”. Therefore, all 36.7 million people living with HIV shall have the chance to benefit under the universal health coverage framework of programs of care, also approved and embedded within the Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, WHO is promoting access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines, as well as health care services for all people in need, while also ensuring that they are protected against financial risks.nnMore than 35 million people globally so far have been infected with HIV and with 1.8 million people becoming newly infected in 2016 makes the disease to be a major global public health threat.nn54% of adults and 43% of children living with HIV are currently receiving lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART), thus the figures indicate there is still space for improvement.nnAIDS has no cure yet. Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can control the virus and help prevent transmission so that people with HIV, and those at substantial risk, can enjoy healthy, long and productive lives.nnnnnnThe SEEHN Member States are strongly committed to end AIDS epidemic and have translated into their country programs the principles of the Global health sector strategy on HIV, 2016-2021.nnSEEHN is fully supporting the WHO slogan – Everybody counts and advocates through its CHISNAU Pledge to make it happen!nnReferences:n
The Head of SEEHN Secretariat, Dr Mira Jovanovski – Dasic, hosted the 6th meeting of SEEHN Executive Committee on 26 June 2017 in the premises of the Secretariat in Skopje. The Bulgarian SEEHN National Health Coordinator and Chief Health Inspector from the Ministry of Health of Bulgaria, Dr Angel Kunchev, also attended the meeting, since the Bulgarian Ministry of Health will take over the next six-month SEEHN Presidency on 1st July. At the meeting, planned activities, meetings and events for that period were discussed. Important decisions were also taken with the aim of boosting and facilitating the work of the Secretariat and the projects of the Network.
Dr. Mira Jovanovski Dasic, Director of SEEHN Secretariat earlier this week had a meeting with H.E. Ms.Lepa Babic, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Republic of Macedonia.
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At the beginning, Dr. Jovanovski Dasic expressed her gratitude to Bosnia and Herzegovina for the strong support to SEEHN activities over the past 15 years. She also gave an insight into the recent accomplishments. Namely, she made an introduction to the newly adopted Chisinau Pledge as a direct result of the SEEHN Fourth Ministerial Forum on “Health, well-being and prosperity in South-Eastern Europe (SEE) by 2030 in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, she presented the structure of the Network, the ongoing activities and the road map for future ones. She also gave an overview of the work of the Regional Health development Centers (RHDCs) while particularly acknowledging their resilient work on Mental Health based in Sarajevo, BiH. She emphasized the importance of the SEEHN Secretariat continuing working on strengthening health systems and the Network’s performance throughout the SEE Region.
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Madam Ambassador Babic congratulated Dr. Jovanovski Dasic on assuming the office and stressed out the significance of a joint initiative tackling contemporary health issues existing in the region thus offering her assistance in terms of diplomatic correspondence in the future.
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Maintaining a strong relationship with the Republic of Macedonia as the host country as well as intensification of the connections with the diplomatic representatives of the SEEHN Member States with seat in Skopje was also recognized as a top priority by Dr. Jovanovski Dasic.
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Information on mutual areas of interest and opinions regarding technical possibilities for the consolidation of the Network have also been exchanged in a friendly atmosphere.
Strengthening the partnershipat local level June 21, 2017 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia – Director of the SEEHN Secretariat Dr Mira Jovanovski Dasic and International Organization for Migration (IOM) Head of Office in the Republic of Macedonia MSc.Sonja Bozinovska Petrusevska, met at the Seat of the SEEHN Secretariat, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.
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Future collaboration and possibilities for strengthening the partnership of the SEEHN and the IOM were discussed.
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Within its Migration Health Division (MHD), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in its role of United Nations Migration Agency, delivers and promotes comprehensive, preventive and curative health programmes which are beneficial, accessible, and equitable for migrants and mobile populations. The IOM’s Head of Office, Ms Bozinovska-Petrusevska has explained the activities implemented by IOM, as a support to the country in addressing the complex migration situation, but also pointed out to the longer-term activities related to renovation of hospitals and donation of medical equipment that contributed towards enhanced conditions for health assistance to migrants and refugees, but also for the local population inhabited in the areas affected by the migration flows. Ms. Bozinovska-Petrusevska pointed out to the future cooperation perspectives between IOM Skopje and SEEHN with focus on the health aspects of the human mobility, transfer of health related expertise, strengthening of the regional referral and cooperation mechanisms, as well as enhancing the overall capacities for provision of health assistance to the vulnerable categories.
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Several SEEHN countries are facing an increased influx of migrants and refugees seeking to cross the SEE countries to reach their final destination Western European countries. These large – scale arrivals of refugees and migrants represent great public health challenge. Taking adequate measures for securing their health and safety, as well as securing public health safety of the SEE countries and their citizens is of key importance.
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Dr Jovanovski Dasic highlighted that in order to have national and better regional and international response there is need to strengthen the collaboration with all relevant international stakeholders, WHO, UNHCR, UNFPA, IOM and other acters who can improve the mechanisms for providing urgent assistance to the countries in need.
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This week IOM and UNHCR are organizing in Skopje a Conference on the global compact of migration and global compact of migrants. IOM invited Secretariat of SEEHN to participate to this event, as a first step for further collaboration and strengthening of the partnership.
Director of SEEHN Secretariat Dr. Mira Jovanovski Dasic met today at the Seat of the Secretariat in Skopje Prof. Dragan Gjorgjev, Director of the SEEHN Regional Health Development Center (RHDC) for strengthening public health capacities placed in the Institute for Public Health in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.
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Dr. Dasic made an overview of the current developments related to the SEEHN. She shared medium and long-term plans aiming to identify challenges and opportunities for strengthening technical work of the SEEHN, in the light of the implementation of the recently endorsed Chisinau Pledge. The role of the SEEHN Regional Health Development Centers is instrumental to that effect. The results will be accelerated with the greater involvement of the SEEHN partners Dr. Dasic emphasized.
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The discussion highlighted the need to guide the work of Regional Health Development Centers towards implementation of the Chisinau Pledge and increasing and strengthening partnerships at the national and sub-national levels. It has been concluded that the Regional Health Development Centers should aim to fulfilling the WHO requirements to become WHO Collaborative Centers.
Director of SEEHN Secretariat Dr. Mira Jovanovski Dasic had today a meeting with H.E. Fatos Reka Ambassador of the Republic of Albania to Republic of Macedonia.
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Dr. Dasic thanked for the support of the Republic of Albania to the SEEHN and partnership that already reached 15 years. She informed the Ambassador about the recent developments, namely the SEEHN Fourth Ministerial Forum “Health, well-being and prosperity in South-Eastern Europe (SEE) by 2030 in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” concluded with the signing and approval of the Chisinau Pledge. Furthermore SEEHN Director presented the current SEE Network activities and future plans of SEEHN, including readiness to continue working on health issues in the Region and strengthening the role of the Secretariat itself.
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Dr. Dasic emphasized the importance of the strong relationship with the host country Republic of Macedonia, as well as through connecting with the diplomatic representatives of the member states of SEEHN with seat in Skopje (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia), also with the ones with seat in Sofia for Moldova and in Zagreb for Israel, that is expected to facilitate flourish the regional partnership.
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Ambassador congratulated the Montenegrin NATO accession, pointing out that this is the great achievement of Montenegro and important step for the entire region.
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The interlocutors also exchanged opinions regarding technical and legal aspects with the view to allow Republic of Albania to prepare the ground for the adoption of the amended SEEHN Memorandum of Understanding.
Sofia, Bulgaria – A one day workshop organized by the Ministry of Health with support of the World Health Organisation gathered together representatives of health, education, social affairs, foreign affairs, academia, World Bank, UNICEF, European Commission and civil society to discuss Bulgarian National Health Strategy (2014-2020) implementation towards achieving WHO Policy Framework for Health and Wellbeing – Health 2020 indicators and Sustainable Development Goals and Targets.
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Director of the SEEHN, Dr. Mira Jovanovski Dasic has presented the SEEHN to the participants and informed of the ongoing and upcoming technical work of the SEEHN. She pointed out that all the SEEHN Member States have developed national health policies in line with the European policy framework for health and well-being – Health 2020, some of those have started localizing Sustainable Development Goals and Montenegro has committed to voluntary reporting on indicators that are relevant to Montenegro. She has also presented the Chisinau Pledge as the SEEHN policy framework aligned with international commitments. Dr Dasic emphasized the important role of WHO as the biggest partner of the SEEHN in support to policy developments in the Member States aimed to leave no one behind, as well as the role of the SEEHN to the same effect.
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Rich discussion and open sharing, added value to the workshop conclusions. The workshop has demonstrated good capacities of the national public health community, interest of the international community present in Bulgaria to support and openness of the civil society for outcome-oriented policy making that will organize intersectoral efforts of the Government and the society to improve health and wellbeing of the population.
Today the Director of the SEEHN Secretariat Dr. Mira Jovanovski Dasic had a fruitful discussion on future activities with Dr. Doina Bologa, UNFPA Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Country Director for Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Director for Kosovo and Senior Emergency Coordinator for Greece, in good partnership atmosphere.
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It was highlighting that is necessary to improve our collaboration on activities of joint interest for the benefit of the SEEHN countries. The collaboration can benefit from UNFPA technical expertise and UNFPA as a partner in a common resource mobilization.nUNFPA Country Office in the Republic of Macedonia will organize on 28 June – 01 July 2017, in Skopje, a sub-regional ToT workshop for improving maternal and new-born health. The course will focus on the Review of all maternal deaths and severe complications for health professionals’ recommendations for implementation, periodic evaluation and actions.
Building resilient communities through planning for health and wellbeing at local level n
Director of the SEEHN Secretariat Dr Mira Jovanovski Dasic and Program Manager, Program for National Health Policies, Division for Policy and Governance for Health and Wellbeing, Regional Office for Europe, Snezhana Chichevalieva, met in the Seat of the SEEHN Secretariat, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. They discussed possibilities for collaboration of the SEEHN and the WHO, Regional Office for Europe for building resilient communities through planning for health and wellbeing at local level in the SEE. Joint initiative’ beneficiaries would be interested SEEHN Member States with already developed structures at local level to support such an initiative.
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Local health policy planning is expected to channel intersectoral efforts of stakeholders at local level to improve health and wellbeing and build resilient communities. Providing support and guidance to local actors for health and wellbeing will ensure an effective integration of the national and local priorities within the contemporary policy context of WHO European policy framework for health and wellbeing- Health2020 and 2030 Agenda. Ministers of Health of the SEEHN member States in the recently adopted SEEHN Chisinau Pledge (March, 2016) have committed to achieve goals and indicators set up by both policy frameworks.
During the 70th World Health Assembly held in Geneva from 22 to 31 of May 2017, Mrs. Ruxanda Glavan, Minister of Health of Republic of Moldova in her capacity as President of the SEE Health Network, on behalf of 9 member states delivered a Joint statement on the Chisinau Pledge and defined commitments of the Network for interventions in the forthcoming period.nnThe full text of the Statement is available at: http://seehn.org/category/publications/jstatements/
After successful completion of the SEEHN Fourth Ministerial Forum “Health, well-being and prosperity in South-Eastern Europe (SEE) by 2030 in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which concluded with signing and approval of the Chisinau Pledge, the SEEHN Secretariat continued its activities on organizing the signing by partners which did not attend the Forum.
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In this framework, Centre for Regional Policy Research and Cooperation “Studiorum” expressed their commitment, through signing the Chisinau Pledge during a bilateral meeting, between Dr. Mira Jovanovski Dasic, Head of SEEHN Secretariat and Dr. Neda Milevska Kostova, Executive Director of CRPRC “Studiorum”, held on 11 of May 2017 in the premises of SEEHN Secretariat.
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This meeting was also used for mutual exchange of information and discussion on possible areas of cooperation in the future. The willingness and readiness to develop and implement joint projects has been expressed and will be discussed in details, during the forthcoming meetings.
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nnThe SEEHN Member States are strongly committed to end AIDS epidemic and have translated into their country programs the principles of the Global health sector strategy on HIV, 2016-2021.nnSEEHN is fully supporting the WHO slogan – Everybody counts and advocates through its CHISNAU Pledge to make it happen!nnReferences:n
