WHO/Europe and the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) formalizing their long-standing collaboration and commitment to mobilize the public health community to address pressing public health challenges in the European Region.
A strategic partnership
EUPHA, a unifying force for public health associations and institutes across Europe, boasts a network of over 32 000 public health professionals from 83 member organizations across 47 countries. Since its establishment in 1992, EUPHA has been actively collaborating with various stakeholders to enhance public health throughout Europe.
“The ink on these papers is more than just a formality; it symbolizes our unwavering commitment to enhancing public health in Europe, holding both organizations accountable every step of the way,” said Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, Director of WHO/Europe’s Division of Country Health Policies and Systems.
The renewed partnership will focus on two key areas: first, building the evidence base and facilitating the uptake of evidence in policy and decision-making; and second, establishing connections between local, regional, national and international levels to facilitate the exchange of knowledge, all while empowering the public health community.
“We, EUPHA and WHO/Europe, both take an evidence-informed approach in our work and will continue to support each other,” said Iveta Nagyova, President of EUPHA. “We have identified six priority topics on which we will focus our collaboration and will reassess the priority topics every two years. As EUPHA, we are proud to have this formal basis for our collaboration and signing the MoU boosts our collective commitment to advancing health for all in our future joint efforts.”
Key areas of collaboration
Signed on 10 November 2023 during a ceremony at the 16th European Public Health Conference, the MoU outlines several areas of collaboration aligned with the WHO European Programme of Work. These include:
- mental health: addressing mental health promotion, protection, prevention and the impact of climate change;
- behavioural and cultural insights: leveraging EUPHA’s networks to understand the learning needs of public health professionals;
- health inequalities: building evidence and advocating for effective interventions and policies to reduce health inequalities while learning from local and national innovations;
- public health leadership capacities: co-developing capacity-building tools and programmnes to meet the needs of public health professionals;
- primary health care: strengthening the capacities of primary health care providers in managing population health; and
- noncommunicable diseases (NCDs): advocating for a systems approach to NCDs and utilising EUPHA’s sections and events in support of the “100-week Challenge” leading up to the Fourth United Nations High-Level Meeting on NCDs.
Source : WHO