Rede anlässlich der Verleihung der Andrija-Stampar-Medaille des Verbands der Ausbildungsstätten für das öffentliche Gesundheitswesen in der Europäischen Region.

10 November 2011, Copenhagen, Denmark

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen,

It is with the greatest sense of honour and humility that I accept the award of the Andrija Stampar Medal in the field of public health from the Association of Schools of Public Health in European Region (ASPHER). Dr Andrija Stampar was one of the towering figures of European public health, and it is the fulfilment of a dream to be given such an honour in his name.

I have, of course, read his inspiring story. He was a wonderful man, a brilliant pupil, an outstanding doctor, developing later an abiding passion for public health as always combining both knowledge and action. Excellent in both fields, by the age of 31 he was Principal of the Yugoslav health service in Belgrade; he helped found an Institute of Social Medicine at the School of Medicine in Zagreb, and in 1927 he founded the School of Public Health in Zagreb with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Later he worked as an international expert for the League of Nations, working in both the United Sates of America and China. Then, after the Second World War, as a Professor of Social Medicine in Zagreb, he was President of the interim committee of WHO charged with setting up its structures and constitution, and also establishing the famous 1948 definition of health, with a focus on well-being. Professor Stampar was Chairman of the first WHO General Assembly in 1948.

His was an amazing career and a wonderful inspiration, spanning local, national, regional and global public health affairs. Much in his work remains as valid today as when he was alive, and I wanted to just to mention here two issues dear to him that I have taken to heart and kept very much in mind in my own work as WHO Regional Director for Europe.

The first, of course, is the need to strengthen public health at all levels, and to achieve strong and effective public health services in all of our European countries. Just as he did, by public health I mean always a combination of knowledge and action for health protection and improvement. He was universally known as a “man of action”, and I would like to claim that view also for myself in my work.

With the strong support of the Regional Committee, WHO/Europe is advancing a strategy and action plan to improve public health capacity and operations in all our European countries. Here, with my friends in ASPHER, I must also make a whole-hearted commitment to helping strengthen public health education as a necessary prerequisite for making the progress in public health capacity and practice here that we so badly need.

The second issue is the idea of well-being. Dr Stampar was there when this very positive notion of health was written into the WHO definition of health in 1948, and I am determined that we shall follow that lead when we develop the new European health policy, Health 2020. I want health and well-being to be thought of as some of the guiding goals and principles of societies and governments, and I feel sure that Dr Stampar would agree.

I have looked down the list of my very distinguished predecessors as holders of the Andrija Stampar Medal, and I see there many names that are known to me and whose work I greatly admire. This is wonderful company and I am thrilled to find myself in their midst. It is a great honour that you have given to me, and I thank you most profoundly. I take my inspiration from all of these wonderful contributors to public health and of course no one more than Dr Stampar himself.

Mr President and distinguished members of ASPHER, I thank you with all my heart.