Day 3 of the World Health Assembly: highlights for the European Region
Professor Juhani Eskola, Director-General of the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland explained that Finland is committed to including health in all policies, at a bilateral meeting with Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe. The Director-General added that the labour market particularly affects the health of young men and noted the needs to address occupational health issues to renew alcohol legislation to encourage lower consumption. The delegation praised WHO for its close collaboration with the European Union.
The Regional Director also met with Dr Mircea Buga, Minister of Health of the Republic of Moldova. The Regional Director pledged to support the country on a range of health issues, including the forthcoming national health forum. The Minister explained that work had begun on changing medicine regulations, to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure.
A delegate of Georgia detailed recent health-sector developments in the country during plenary discussions, including the introduction of universal health coverage, a project to eliminate Hepatitis C and work to increase medicine availability. The delegate also noted that child mortality rates had fallen markedly in recent years.
In plenary, a delegate of Uzbekistan explained that the country's health system reform has been based on the Tallinn Charter: Health Systems for Health and Wealth and the Declaration of Alma-Ata, and that Health 2020 was being implemented. Recent successes included a threefold decrease in child mortality, a new vaccine programme, the stabilization of mortality from tuberculosis and noncommunicable diseases, and falling tobacco and alcohol consumption. Plans to address diet and nutrition issue were underway.
A representative of the Holy See emphasized how the tragedy of the Ebola crisis highlighted once more the need for universal health coverage and prompt responses to outbreaks. The representative called for support from the international community, and a shift in focus from short-term funding of programmes to long-term strengthening of health systems.
A representative of the Order of Malta explained the organization's historic mission to reduce the suffering and vulnerability of people in need and its current activities in emergencies around the world, including working in Nepal and providing health care to refugees in Turkey. The organization supports the inclusion of health-related goals in the post-2015 development agenda.
Representatives of several European Member States attended the lunchtime technical briefing on climate and health. Participants noted the importance of emphasizing human health in the debate on climate change, and that the increase of 4 °C in global temperature that would result if no action were taken, would be catastrophic. A new universal agreement on climate change was being negotiated for the climate summit to be held in Paris in December 2015. Keeping the human-induced temperature increase to within 2 °C was a key goal, but gaining consensus on this was challenging.
Many Member States took part in discussions on the proposed global vaccine action plan, which calls for annual reporting and an oversight role for WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization. The discussions would resume later to allow countries more time for consultation on the proposed resolution.
An evening technical session described the achievements and challenges of implementing the WHO Global Code of Practice on International Recruitment of Health Personnel. The WHO European Region was cited as taking a lead on introducing the Code, and an update on its implementation in the Region since its adoption in 2010 was being prepared for the 65th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe.
European Member States took part in discussion on the implementation of the programme budget for 2014–2015, and the proposal for the 2016–2017 budget. A majority of countries agreed on the need to increase the budget for 2016–2017 and the proposed 8% increase. Many also called for greater transparency, further information on prioritization and more cost-efficiency measures.
