Workshop Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) through Health System Strengthening and Social Determinants of Health. June 17-25, 2013 Ankara - Turkey
Objectives 1) To assess the achievements Turkey has made in improving NCD outcomes through addressing social determinants of health, through population based risk factor control, and through strengthening individual health services. 2) To identify barriers that prevent delivery of core NCD interventions and services and slow progress in outcomes; 3) To produce contextualized, pragmatic and actionable policy recommendations that allow accelerating gains in key NCD outcomes; 4) To identify good practices relevant for other countries in the region and globally in the areas of NCD prevention and control.
The WHO Regional Office for Europe has initiated a work program in the area of health system strengthening to improve NCD outcomes with country assessments to identify good practices and challenges in the area of prevention and control of NCDs. The country assessments will follow a common guide which was distributed at the workshop.
Turkey has been considered a pioneer among the country studies to be conducted in 2013 (other countries taking part include Catalonia/Spain, Germany, Scotland, Denmark, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova and Tajikistan). These countries have been chosen because of their interesting policy lessons to share, prior or existing work on NCDs, partners ready to engage, resources, and representation of the Region.
In each country participating in the assessment, country specific policy dialogue will be held to discuss results of the assessment, share results of other country studies, and agree on a set of prioritized policy recommendations. These recommendations will then feed into national processes on developing NCD action plans and health system strengthening plans.
Results on good practices and challenges will be shared at four high impact regional events in the autumn; Tallinn Conference on Health Systems (October 17-18), Flagship course on HSS and NCDs in Barcelona (October 21-30), Alma Ata Conference on Primary Care (November 6-7), Ashgabat Ministerial Conference on HSS and NCDs (December 10-11).
These issues were discussed with a wide range of stakeholders including both health sector and non-health sector representatives, as well as civil society, to allow for a comprehensive discussion of prevention and control of NCDs.