WHO team reports findings on social determinants and health inequalities to the Ministry of Health

At the request of the Ministry of Health in Slovenia, WHO/Europe made a national appraisal of its policies and governance mechanisms with regard to the social determinants of health and health inequities in late November 2009, in collaboration with members of the International Action for Partnership in Health (HAPI)

The overall purpose was to explore opportunities for systematizing and strengthening action to address these issues. The appraisal:

• identified the range of policies and governance mechanisms for tackling social  determinants of health, and options and incentives for strengthening their impact; and
• drafted recommendations for scaling up action in the short and medium terms.

The mission carried out focus group discussions and interviews with about. 45 stakeholders, and held a workshop in Nova Gorica, where the emerging findings were discussed with national and regional policy-makers and practitioners. Two reports were made on the results To follow up, a meeting to discuss the findings took place in Ljubljana (30 March 2010).