Biennial Plan of Cooperation 2020-2021

Description of the Biennial Plan of Cooperation

This document constitutes a practical framework for collaboration. It has been drawn up in a process of successive consultations between national health authorities and the Secretariat of the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

The collaboration programme for 2020–2021 has started with the bottom-up GPW 13 outcome prioritization process undertaken by the country in cooperation with the Regional Office. This work was carried out as part of WHO’s transformation in the overall context provided by the GPW 13. The objective of the bottom-up planning exercise was to determine the priority health outcomes for WHO collaboration with the country during the period 2019–2023. This document further details the collaboration programme, including the prioritized outcomes, proposed outputs, and product and services deliverables.

The Outcomes are the desired changes in Member States’ capacities, that result in increased access to services and that ultimately contribute to sustainable changes in the health of populations. These changes in the health of population are those that the Member State aims to achieve on the basis of its uptake of the WHO Secretariat’s outputs, and hence they are a joint responsibility of the Member State and the Secretariat.

Achieving the prioritized outcomes as identified in this Biennial Plan of Cooperation is therefore the responsibility of both the WHO Secretariat and the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic.

Different modes of delivery are forseen in the implementation of this Biennial Plan of Cooperation, ranging from country-specific (for outputs that are highly specific to the needs and circumstances of individual countries), to intercountry (addressing countries’ common needs using Region-wide approaches) and multicountry (for subregional needs).

Annex 1: GPW 13 results framework

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Health situation analysis

Czech Republic is a high-income, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) member state. Key issues are long-term sustainability of the health sector which provides almost complete universal coverage to all residents and citizens. Czech Republic is the fastest aging EU country and is in need of strategies to ensure continuous provision of an ever-improving and better performing integrated health coverage in the future.

Life expectancy of the Czech population has been increasing in the long term according to the life expectancy. Nevertheless, the values found for both Czech women and men are lower than the EU average. In 2017, life expectancy at birth for women was 82.0 years, which is 1.8 years more than in 2007 but 1.5 less than the EU average in 2017. For men, in 2017 life expectancy at birth was 76.1 years, which is 2.3 years more than in 2007 but 2.2 less than the EU average for 2017.

Overall mortality shows a slightly increasing trend over the period 2010-2017, largely due to an aging population. 62% of all deaths in the Czech Republic are deaths of long-term ill patients without acute cause. This represents 66.6 thousand patients a year who may potentially need long-term or palliative care. Most of the fundamental and internationally monitored mortality parameters show improving values in the Czech Republic over time.

25.9% of all deaths can be defined as premature in the Czech Republic in 2007-2017. And it is still well above the EU average. Although the main factor increasing population morbidity is demographic aging, a large proportion is also due to poor lifestyle and a strong influence of risk factors such as alcohol consumption, tobacco use, poor eating habits, etc. The Czech Republic has a significantly higher death rate from preventable diseases than the EU28 average (216 per 100 000 inhabitants).

Infant mortality rate is among the lowest in the European countries. Czech Republic outperforms the economies of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of overall health care outcomes, such as survival rates following hospitalization due to ischemic stroke. The overall hospital mortality rate in the Czech Republic is relatively low and does not exceed 3%.

The statistically significant differences in health indicators between the regions of the Czech persist. Life expectancy varies significantly across 77 districts of the Czech Republic, even though the geographical coverage of health service providers is evenly distributed. Therefore, differences in health outcomes are likely to reflect different quality of service, population health, lower health literacy or the prevalence of risk factors for behavior.

The structure of the population with a high proportion of the elderly of both sexes is an important factor determining the future development of the Czech health care system and the expected needs of health and social services. The average age of the population of Czech men is 40.8 years, for women 43.6 years. The proportion of people over 60 is approximately 25%. Demographic predictions show that there will be a significant increase in the proportion of the population over 60 years and the population over 65 years in the next 30 years. According to the demographic projections, life expectancy at birth will increase and in 2050 it should reach 82.1 years for men and 86.7 years for women.

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GPW 13 prioritized outcomes and links to Health 2020 and the 2030 Agenda in the Czech Republic

The national Health 2030 Strategic Framework also builds on previously formulated strategic materials such as Health 2020 - National Strategy for Health Protection and Promotion and Disease Prevention with relevant Action Plans; National eHealth Strategy and Psychiatric Care Reform Strategy.

In an international context, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, on which the SDGs - United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - are based, is the starting point for developing the Health 2030 Strategic Framework. For the health sector, the decisive factor is SDG 3 "Ensure a healthy life and improve its quality for all at any age".

The principles, areas, measures and priorities of the Health 2030 Strategic Framework were also reflected in the concurrently prepared Regional Development Strategy of the Czech Republic 2021+ as well as in the National Concept of Cohesion Policy Implementation after 2020.

The Health 2030 Strategic Framework focuses on three strategic objectives:

  1. Improving the health status of the population;
  2. Optimizing the health system; and
  3. Supporting science and research.

These strategic objectives are then broken down into seven specific objectives, which copy the investment and non-investment priorities of the Ministry of Health for the programming period of the economic, social and territorial cohesion policy of the EU 2021+ and which will be implemented through seven related implementation plans.

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Linkage of the Biennial Plan of Cooperation with national and international strategic frameworks for the Czech Republic

This Biennial Plan of Cooperation for the Czech Republic supports the realization of Czechia’s national health policies and plans, namely Health 2020 and the future Health 2030 strategy and its implementation plans, as well as other relevant strategies relevant to health.

WHO’s strategic support focuses on the health system development in the country, contributing to development of sustainable health system to maintain an almost universal health coverage with a generous package of services for all; developing and implementing health promoting policies across sectors; and providing policy and technical leadership in collaboration with the government, other sectors and various levels of governance and multiple stakeholders.

The main objectives are to provide added value to the health policy making and implementation across sectors in the Czech Republic through policy advice, advocacy, exchange of knowledge and experience with others, provision of specific and targeted technical assistance and engagement of the Czech Republic in global public health and WHO governance.

The broad priority areas outlined in the GPW 13 correspond well with the emerging priorities of then national strategy Health 2030. Namely –

  • improving people’s health;
  • optimizing the health sector performance and
  • promoting innovation and science.

Annex 1: GPW 13 results framework

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Programmatic priorities for collaboration

The collaboration programme for 2020–2021 as detailed in Annex 2, is grounded in the above analysis and was mutually agreed and selected in response to public health concerns and ongoing efforts to improve the health status of the population of the Czech Republic. It seeks to facilitate strategic collaboration enabling WHO to make a unique contribution.

Annex 2

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