Children's environmental health

Regional consultation on the health and environment linkages initiative (HELI) and children's environmental health indicators initiative (CEHI), 28-31st March 2005, Amman, Jordan

The consultation assembled more than 45 experts from 15 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region to review and discuss the outcomes and the lessons learned from implementing the Health and Environment Linkages Initiative (HELI) in Jordan and the Children's Environmental Health Indicators Initiative (CEHI) pilot projects in Oman and Tunisia. Participants reviewed the tools and methodologies presented, as well as the results and lessons learned from their implementation through national application within the EMR countries.

The expert consultation noted outstanding breakthroughs: the demonstration of quantifiable linkages between increased water consumption and incidence of diarrhea; a well defined process for identifying, quantifying and valuing the environment and health benefits of various policy options; and the utilization of a combination of risk assessment and economic valuation tools to facilitate decision-making.

The consultation drew plans for further development for incorporating environment and health considerations into policy-making at the national and regional level. The Regional Initiative on Tools for Effective Decision Making on Health and the Environment was developed at the consultation with the following components: i) Consolidation of ongoing work and additional applications to refine the tools and processes ii) Capacity building through documentation, training, and dissemination.

The consultation also developed a regional consultation process to facilitate capacity building and dissemination with three milestone: a regional expert consultation within a year, a regional training workshop within two years, and an international conference within three years.

Download the Consultation documents

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