The aims of the workshop were to follow up on the current status of establishing the national public health institutes in Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine and to provide case-based strategies in strengthening the capacity of merged national public health institutes. This interactive meeting also focused around developing the public health workforce in the national public health institutes and discussing proposed tools national public health institutes can use.
The first joint WHO-IANPHI meeting took place in Kyiv, Ukraine in May 2017, in the context of the Coalition of Partners, a WHO-lead initiative on strengthening public health services and capacities in the European Region. It aimed to support the development of the then newly established Ukrainian Public Health Centre, focusing on building strong senior management teams.
The second WHO-IANPHI technical seminar took place in Warsaw, Poland in April 2018, focusing on establishing the national public health institutes through a merger process. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine participated in this seminar, at which Belgium, France, Norway and Sweden shared their experiences of their recent mergers to establish their national institutes.
Against this background, WHO, in collaboration with IANPHI, convened a follow-up technical seminar at which Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine reflected together on the past year of strengthening their national institutes and shared their learning with other countries joining in, including Albania. Expert discussions were held on the way forward in each country based on specific questions that emerged in the process. Experts from countries that have gone through the process, such as Belgium, France, Norway and the United Kingdom, were on hand to lend support by sharing their experiences.