EHP Partnerships

Background and scope and purpose

The European Environment and Health Process (EHP) Partnerships mechanism was launched by Member States at the Seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, held in Budapest, Hungary, in 2023. It serves as a practical, agile, thematic and action-oriented means to facilitate implementation of the commitments of the Budapest Declaration and its “Roadmap for healthier people, a thriving planet and a sustainable future 2023–2030”.

The guiding principle of the EHP Partnerships is the voluntary commitment among Member States and EHP stakeholders to collaborate in good faith on topics of common interest within the scope of the Budapest Declaration.

Activities within the EHP Partnerships are wide-ranging and include various collaborative opportunities for finding effective solutions for environment and health challenges. The aim is to delve deeper into specific areas of environment and health, accelerate the uptake of new approaches and relevant normative guidance, promote peer-to-peer support, share knowledge and experiences, provide a platform for communities of practice, and increase opportunities for “twinning”.

Governance

The EHP Partnerships is an flexible mechanism, and its operational modalities can vary from one Partnership to another, based on the agreement among lead and participating Member States and/or organizations, and on the scope of work of the EHP Partnership itself.

While maintaining flexibility, any EHP Partnership adheres to the general principles of WHO as defined in its Constitution, and to applicable WHO policies, rules, regulations, procedures and practices.

EHP Partnerships can be established and led or co-led by Member States and/or recognized stakeholders who are members of the European Environment and Health Task Force (EHTF). The EHP Partnerships are approved and operated according to decisions made by the EHTF.

The membership of a Partnership is primarily made up of Member States, their relevant institutions at national or subnational level (as appropriate to the scope of work of the Partnership) and recognized stakeholders of the EHTF, but can be extended beyond EHTF members.

The EHP Partnerships are supported by their partners, through voluntary contributions that can be financial or in kind.

For more information, please refer to the terms of reference of the EHP Partnerships.