EUR/RC62/wd08 (Eng) - WHO/Europe - World Health Organization

EUR/RC62/8
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such fields as privacy, risk assessment, quality control, health technology assessment and
health impact assessment.
Governing through adaptive policies, resilient structures and foresight. Whole-ofgovernment
approaches need to be adaptive and mirror the complexities of causality,
because complex and wicked problems have no simple linear causality or solution.
Decentralized decision-making and self-organizing or social networking help
stakeholders respond quickly to unanticipated events in innovative ways. Interventions
should be iterative and integrate continuous learning, multistakeholder knowledgegathering
and sharing, and mechanisms to encourage further deliberation or automatic
policy adjustment. Policy interventions in one area can have unintended consequences in
another, and studies indicate the value of promoting a wide variation of smaller-scale
interventions at the local and community levels for the same problem, to encourage
learning and adaptation. Anticipatory governance with participatory foresight
mechanisms can also support societal resilience by shifting policy from risks to
addressing more fundamental systemic challenges and jointly deliberating the social and
value- and science-based dimensions of public policy.
Working together on common priorities for health
156. The Health 2020 policy framework proposes four common areas for policy action based
on the categories for priority-setting and programmes in WHO agreed by Member States at the
global level and aligned to address the special requirements and experiences of the European
Region. These also build on relevant WHO strategies and action plans at the regional and global
levels.
Investing in health through a life-course approach and empowering people.
Tackling Europe’s major disease burdens of noncommunicable and communicable
diseases.
Strengthening people-centred health systems, public health capacity, and emergency
preparedness surveillance and response.
Creating resilient communities and supportive environments.
157. The four priority areas are not discrete areas of action but are frequently interdependent
and mutually supportive. For example, taking action on the life-course and empowering people
will help to contain the epidemic of noncommunicable diseases, as will strengthening public
health capacity. Governments achieve greater health effects when they link up policies,
investment and services and focus on reducing inequality. The WHO Regional Office for
Europe will step up its role as a resource for developing policy based on examples of and
evidence about such integrated approaches.
158. Addressing these priorities requires combining governance approaches – hierarchical,
dispersed and participatory – to make health and well-being possible for everyone. Such
governance will anticipate change, foster innovation, and be oriented towards investing in
promoting health and preventing disease. New approaches to governance for health will include
governing through collaboration, through citizen engagement, through a mix of regulation and
persuasion, and through independent agencies and expert bodies. The latter, in particular, reflect
the increasing function of assessing evidence, overseeing ethical boundaries, expanding
transparency and strengthening democratic accountability in such fields as privacy, risk
assessment and health impact assessment.