SEEHN – SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE HEALTH NETWORK

Background, cornerstone events

The Stability Pact for South-east Europe was launched in 1999 as the first comprehensive conflict prevention strategy of the international community, aimed at strengthening the efforts of the countries of South-east Europe in fostering peace, democracy, respect for human rights and economic prosperity. Health was consequently added to the agenda of the Stability Pact Social Cohesion Initiative n May 2001 (Working Table 2: Economic reconstruction, Cooperation, and Development).

The Stability Pact has transformed into its successor organization, the Regional Co-operation Council. This new structure was designed around priorities defined by the region itself and was officially launched at the joint session of the final Stability Pact Regional Table and inaugural meeting of the Regional Co-operation Council in Sofia, 27 February 2008 with the full commitment and support from South-east European countries, donor countries and other international actors, such as the European Commission.

The Regional Co-operation Council inherited the mandate of the Stability Pact to oversee co-operation processes in South-east Europe and to support European and Euro-Atlantic integration of the region.

The First Ministerial Forum of the South Eastern Europe was organized in cooperation with the World Health Organization, the European Union, and the Council of Europe, the Stability Pact for SEE in Dubrovnik, in 2001. The Second Ministerial Forum ,in Skopje in 2005 and The Third Ministerial Forum  in Banja Luka, in 2011 that present three chapters of a decade of regional cooperation in public health in the SEE serving as health diplomacy tool to obtain and sustain peace and stability, further economic development and an agora for public health acting to achieve the overarching goal: all of a government action for health and through health contributing to economic development and strengthening European integration processes of the SEE countries.

The Dubrovnik Pledge, 2001: Rebuilding peace and stability

First Ministerial Forum of the South Eastern Europe in Dubrovnik, in 2001 has endorsed The Dubrovnik Pledge. It was a commitment to meeting the health needs of vulnerable populations, especially important on the offset of political unrests in SEE.  The health ministers stressed: “accept the challenge to play a key role in strengthening the fundamental human rights of our societies and our vulnerable populations and individuals within them to effective healthcare, social well-being and human development, in line with the principles of the World Health Organization and the Council of Europe” (the Dubrovnik pledge, 2001). A new mechanism was created to ensure implementation of the pledge and regional projects within its framework: the SEEHN. The member states took the first steps towards setting up regional health agenda in SEE. Overall, the Dubrovnik Pledge and the creation of the SEEHN constituted the region’s first-ever cross-border political alliance in health and is recognized as a huge political victory for peace and cooperation and made health the cornerstone of the Stability Pact’s Social Cohesion Initiative. This chapter of the sub-regional development was deducted to post-conflict healing and rebuilding trust, thus the most prominent and the first project that the SEEHN begun with was the project on strengthening mental health in the (post crises) community.

The aspirations and goals of the Dubrovnik pledge were subsequently reaffirmed by the Second Health Ministers’ Forum on Health and Economic Development in South-eastern Europe in the 21st-century (2005). The Forum culminated in the issuing of the Skopje Pledge, which confirmed the commitment of the governments of the nine member states to demonstrate the economic potential of health as a means to increase productivity and decrease public expenditure on illness and to assume full responsibility for regional cooperation through further work in technical areas to serve this goal (food safety, blood safety, accreditation of healthcare facilities, human resources for health, strengthening public health services).
In between the two Forums (2005 and 2011) the process of establishing regional ownership made a series of important steps towards developing regional health governance structures:
• Signing of the major political document of the SEEHN in 2008: Memorandum of Understanding on the Future of the South-eastern Europe Health Network in the framework of the South East European Co-operation Process (2008 and beyond)
• Establishing of the regional secretariat and of the Regional Health Development Centers that has marked the transfer of ownership process. Those are permanent legacy of the projects conducted under the SEEHN during the past years, as they complete the transformation of the technical projects into long-term programs of regional cooperation in public health.
• The first legally binding document has been signed in 2010, the Host Agreement on the Arrangements on the Seat of the Secretariat of the SEEHN.

“To promote  the sustainable development of the SEEHN member states by improving the health of their populations through better and more intense cooperation, collaboration, integration, capacity building, and coordination in public health at regional level. This includes supporting reform of their national health systems and contributing to economic and social development”

  from “A Decade of regional cooperation in public health in South-eastern Europe –A story of successful partnership”

Sub-regional cooperation in public health in SEE operates on political and technical level. Ministerial Forums and the SEEHN Plenary sessions, the latter constituted by the National Health Coordinators, one per member state, represent the political level.  While Ministerial forums have the role of shaping/deciding on overall 4 years sub-regional collaboration policy in public health in SEE, the SEEHN operates as a standing committee to the forums and implement those 4 years policies (from one forum to another).

Executive Committee of the SEEHN runs the SEEHN work between the SEEHN Plenary sessions that are held twice a year, by the country at Presidency (each of six months term). Presidency sets up a SEEHN Road Map for its term and implements it supported by the Executive Committee and the Secretariat of the SEEHN. Presidencies change in alphabetical order.

Technical cooperation is organized through establishing Regional Health Development Centers, each for specific technical area of work decided by the member states.

1. Sustaining and strengthening  regional cooperation in public health

2. Achieving equity and accountability in health through HiAP

3. Strengthening public health capacities and services for control and prevention of the NDCs (aligning European with the SEEHN Action plan on NCDs

1.  Sustaining and strengthening  regional cooperation in public health

•Continuing cooperation and coordination in public health beyond 2011

• Further capacity building of existing institutional, human and knowledge resources in the SEE