Venice hosted the European Health Equity Status Report expert partners’ meeting
On 23–24 January 2017 the WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development in Venice hosted a meeting of 8 expert partner organizations working in the areas policy research for gender equity, and environmental, social and economic determinants of health.
The expert partners came together to shape the development of a first European Health Equity Status Report (HESR), which the WHO Regional Director for Europe announced to Member States during the 66th session of the Regional Committee in September 2016.
The HESR is being produced in light of the urgent need to scale up country and Regional Office monitoring of governmental policies and their impact on health equity across the populations, including capturing the regional drivers of health inequity and opportunities for accelerating progress.
The meeting was the first key step towards identifying core indicators for tracking status, policy and progress towards health equity related to the conditions in which people grow up, live, work and grow old. The discussions took into account the need to form synergies with the targets and indicators across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in support of implementing the “leaving no one behind” element of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda in the WHO European Region.
The WHO European HESR
The WHO European HESR is being developed as a tool to enable the Regional Office, Member States and partners to advocate more strongly in favour of health equity and well-being within countries. It will monitor progress towards Health 2020’s equity goals, specifically describing the in- country determinants, policies and key regional drivers that are shaping health equity across the population.
Progress will be captured through the use of a dialogue-based methodology to enhance in-country and regional debates on the health equity and well-being of our societies and to stimulate further dialogue on health equity as a means of supporting inclusive and sustainable societies in the context of national development plans and the implementation of health and equity within the 2030 Agenda.
The WHO European HESR will be an official stand-alone WHO European Region report produced every four years, complementing the WHO European Health Report.
