The Baltic Sea region is still an area of considerable disparities in health and social conditions. It features places where social and economic problems cause high levels of mortality due to non-communicable diseases, violence, alcohol and drug abuse and the spread of infectious diseases. Further, the growing cross-border movement of people needs to be paralleled by actions addressing inequalities in health status and in the level of health protection.
Policy Area "Health" in the EUSBSR
The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) aims to address a selected range of challenges faced by the region. The EUSBSR Action Plan, which is accompanying the EUSBSR, comprises four Horizontal Actions and 13 Policy Areas, including “Health”. The Policy Area “Health” focuses on improving and promoting the health of people in the Baltic Sea region, including social aspects of health, as an important precondition for ensuring sustainable and healthy societies enjoying economic growth, and for containing future health and social care-related costs.
What do we want to achieve?
The EUSBSR Action Plan (latest revised in mid-2015) include six main health-related actions, which represent the main areas where the EUSBSR can contribute to improve and promote the health of people:
- Reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and associated infectionsamong populations at risk;
- Contain antimicrobial resistance;
- Adequately address health needs of chronically ill patientsand needs related to demographic changes;
- Reduce impact of non-communicable diseases (NCDs);
- Reduce social and health harm from alcohol, tobacco and illicit use of drugs;
- Strengthen occupational safety and healthand well-being at work.
NDPHS - Coordinator for the Policy Area “Health” within the EUSBSR
The Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPSH) is the Coordinator for the Policy Area "Health" in the EUSBSR.
 |
 |
 |
As the Policy Area Coordinator for “Health” in the EUSBSR the NDPHS provides assistance to stakeholders interested in contributing to this Policy Area in:
- Fostering macro-regional cooperation in the public health area and making it more integrated and inclusive(by strengthening and expanding existing networks, creating new networks and encouraging new stakeholders to get involved in regional health cooperation);
- Identifying potential sources of financing for activities contributing to the implementation of the Strategy(e.g., by organising seminars on project development and funding, providing information on the NDPHS website and via individual consultations);
- Fostering macro-regional cooperation in policy shaping(e.g., by promoting the concept of policy-to-project-to-policy cycle to raise the awareness among project developers of the importance of meeting policy needs and among policy-makers of the need to take project outcomes into account when developing or reshaping policies);
- Development and facilitation of, and support to regional flagships contributing to the implementation of the Strategy (e.g., by supporting stakeholders in project development and fund-raising, assisting in looking for projects partners, providing letters of support);
- Increased visibility and recognition of importance of health on the regional cooperation agenda(e.g., by strengthening the understanding of the importance of health and social well-being for other policy areas and economic development).
Stakeholders, interested in receiving the above or another type of support within the EUSBSR context, are invited to contact the NDPHS Secretariat.
PA “Health” Support 2 Project
As a Policy Area Coordinator the NDPHS has received a technical assistance grant financed by the European Union through the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020. The grant aims to support the NDPHS work in coordination and implementation of activities within the Health Policy Area of the EUSBSR Action Plan, not least those listed above. The funding is provided through a two-year “PA Health support 2” project which will continue until 31 July 2018.
Call for applications
Within the framework of the above-mentioned project the NDPHS Secretariat, as PA “Health” Coordinator within the EUSBSR, along with coordinators of the EUSBSR Horizontal Action “Capacity”, invites interested stakeholders to apply for training in designing, developing and implementing projects. The training will be held on 8-9 November 2017 in Riga, Latvia. The application deadline is 20 September 2017.
For more information about the training please visit the event’s page.
Flagship projects
Actions within the EUSBSR are implemented by means of, for instance, Flagship initiatives (among them projects), which demonstrate the progress of the Strategy and may serve as pilot examples for desired action in a given field. The following are examples of Policy Area “Health” Flagship projects included in an annex to the EUSBSR Action Plan:
- Northern Dimension Antibiotic Resistance Study;
- Building capacity in prevention of HIV and associated infections among youth at high risk;
- PrimCare IT;
- Alcohol and drug prevention among youth;
- ImPrim;
- ICT for Health.
Useful facilitation tools offered by NDPHS
The NDPHS invites the stakeholders, who are developing project ideas in the area of health and social well-being consistent with the EU BSR Strategy, to use the following tools developed by the NDPHS:
- Database;
- Thematic reports;
- List of project funding opportunities;
- On-line calendar of health and social well-being events;
- E-Newsletter.
Contact & more information
NDPHS Secretariat
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: http://www.ndphs.org
Spotlight blog series introduces the concrete work done by the Policy Areas and Horizontal Actions of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.