Photo highlights from RC68, Tuesday 18 September 2018
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 1
From improving vaccine coverage to ensuring financial protection, strengthening health systems was a key theme on Day 2 of the 68th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC68).
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 2
The prioritization exercise for WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13) for 2019–2023 continued from Day 1, together with discussions of the proposed high-level programme budget for 2020–2021.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 3
Member States discussed progress on the SDGs and the adoption of a joint monitoring framework (JMF) to track progress. Dr Piroska Östlin, Director of WHO/Europe’s Division of Policy and Governance for Health and Well-being, noted that 35 countries from the WHO European Region have already reported their progress on SDG implementation to the United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 4
Dr Claudia Stein, Director of WHO/Europe’s Division of Information, Evidence, Research and Innovation introduced the joint monitoring framework for Health 2020, the 2030 Agenda and the Global action plan for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013–2020.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 5
“I strongly believe that the fight for human health and human dignity is the most important struggle of all,” said Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania in his keynote address, calling on WHO to show the way and increase its impact in countries by expanding work in public health areas such as health technology assessments, big data, digital health and human resources.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 6
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir of Iceland explained in a short film, “The SDGs are really all about daily life. They are about the things you do – education, health – but also about how you consume, how you live, where you work, your environment … The role of the Government and the Prime Ministry here in Iceland is to make these Goals relevant for the daily life of the normal Icelandic person.”
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 7
A panel of ministers and state secretaries from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Malta and Romania explored different aspects of achieving the SDGs. Panellists welcomed the JMF, and underlined that universal health coverage is key to achieving the SDGs.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 8
Dr Melitta Jakab, Senior Health Economist at the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening, summarized the outcomes of the high-level meeting "Health Systems Respond to NCDs", held in April 2018 in Sitges, Spain.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 9
Dr Tamas Evetovits and Dr Sarah Thomson of the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening presented new evidence on financial protection in the Region, suggesting that far too many people in the Region – even in high-income countries – are insufficiently protected against the cost of using health care.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 10
At the ministerial lunch, ministers were taken through the cycle of production, analysis and reporting of information all the way to the use of evidence for policy-making.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 11
Dr Vadim Donchenko, Chair of the Transport, Health and Environment Pan European Programme (THE PEP) led a briefing on environmentally sustainable urban transport.
Day 2 - Tuesday 18... 12
Eleven national delegations, including 6 ministers from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine, joined the third annual ministerial breakfast meeting on TB-REP, a project to strengthen health systems for effective TB and drug-resistant TB prevention and care.