Public Health Capacity in the EU

Background:

To address the need for capacity building for public health in the EU, a systematic exercise to map public health and health promotion capacity within the 27 Member States has been undertaken. It is based on a conceptual model of public health capacity, covering seven areas domains: country specific context with relevance for public health, leadership & governance, organizational structures, resources, workforce, partnerships, knowledge development.

The European Commission (EAHC and DG Sanco) contracted a consortium of organisations representing the major professional organisations in public health in Europe to review the current public health capacity in Europe and to make recommendations for EU action and support.

Aims & Objectives:

The specific objectives of this project are:

To carry out a detailed review of the capacity of EU Member States to develop and implement public health policies and interventions;
To identify gaps, needs and common issues;
To identify a number of suggestions for action where EU support (including programmes and instruments in other policy areas) could provide assistance and added value to strengthen public health capacities.

To achieve the objectives mentioned above, a mixed methodology will be used, involving document analysis, assessment tool/questionnaire, focus groups with key informants, in depth case studies and consensus building at country level. Findings will be endorsed by the Ministry of Health or the highest public health authority in the country.

Activities:

The project started in January 2010 with the development of the assessment tool/questionnaire and will continue with document analysis, focus groups and development of in-depth case studies at country level. The data collected and findings from each country will be included in a database. The results of the analysis will be discussed in policy dialogues with decisions makers from national and EU level. A final report including main findings, suggestions and recommendations for future actions to strengthen public health capacity will be submitted to the European Commission in 2011.

Other Partners involved:

The Consortium is formed by EuroHealthNet, EUPHA, IUHPE, ASPHER, and EHMA, under the leadership of the Department of International Health of Maastricht University and with the support of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and GEOMED.