Health Promotion International, Vol. 29 No. S1 doi:10.1093/heapro/dau040
# Republic of Finland. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected]
CLOSING ADDRESS
Dear colleagues, Regional Director and Assistant Director-General, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, We have shared very interesting and inspiring experiences and had tremendous learning opportunities. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for sharing your wisdom with us. In her opening speech, the Director General, Dr Chan showed great faith in us when she said ‘I trust that this will be a watershed event. I look forward to your deliberations’. Health and equity are fundamental human rights. Implementing Health in All Policies at the various levels of policy-making can make a real difference for health and health equity. The commitment of the participants to realize these rights is expressed in the Conference Statement. The Framework for country action will guide our practical efforts. However, the changes will not happen automatically. We need to continue to work hard at all levels of policy-making. We need to remind the governments about their responsibilities for health and health equity. We need to continue our efforts to bring about an understanding and will in our governments, politicians and other policy-makers to commit to health and health equity. They are fundamental values. They also make a difference in society, including enabling us to achieve many of our other important societal goals. As the Minister of Health and Social Services, I am very mindful of the fact that we need to take good care of our work force in the health sector, including in the health administration, as well as in our health institutions. Deep public health understanding is crucial for all health
professionals. In addition, people in the health sector need to understand how the rest of the society works. Necessary health data and ability to analyze that are important. Proper responses to be taken based on the situation need to be developed, decided upon and implemented. The necessary institutional capacities, structures and processes have to be built with a long-term strategy and commitment. The current world is more complex than the one we had in the 1980s, when Finland became a pioneer country for the WHO European Regional Office to implement the Health for All Strategy. More of the policy-making is done at levels beyond our national boundaries. Globalization has been strongest in the spheres of economics and trade, but important global processes are taking place in many other areas as well. We need to be clear on where decisions with potentially important health implications are made, by whom and when. We should share this type of information, and when needed combine our forces for analyses and action. I would like to congratulate the WHO on its recent work on the dialogue with other UN agencies and other international organizations on integrating health in their policies, in particular as regards improving the NCD situation. The work of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health was ground-breaking and the Health in All Policies approach provides a feasible approach for addressing them. I would like to thank the WHO for organizing this opportunity to exchange experiences. I would like to see WHO to continue to facilitate such exchange. Technical support in applying the i15
Downloaded from http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Institute of social and preventive medicine, University of Berne on September 13, 2014
Closing address by Ms Susanna Huovinen, Minister of Health and Social Services, Finland
i16
Closing address
this most important matter. As Hoda Rashad said today: ‘Health Promotion is our dream, Health in All Policies is our plan’. Dear participants, I hope that your stay in Helsinki has been useful, pleasant and joyful. Thank you for coming. It has been a pleasure and a great honor to host you. Let’s continue to work together for a better future. Thank you very much.
Downloaded from http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Institute of social and preventive medicine, University of Berne on September 13, 2014
Health in All Policies approach would also be likely to be welcome by many Member States. Furthermore, it could be useful for policymaking at the various levels to have support from the WHO with the analyses of potential health impacts of the global, regional and bilateral draft agreements and treaties. We have made important steps forward. Let’s continue the work. As the Minister of Health and Social Services of Finland, I thank you all and hope to continue working with all of you on
# Republic of Finland. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [email protected]
CLOSING ADDRESS
Dear colleagues, Regional Director and Assistant Director-General, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, We have shared very interesting and inspiring experiences and had tremendous learning opportunities. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for sharing your wisdom with us. In her opening speech, the Director General, Dr Chan showed great faith in us when she said ‘I trust that this will be a watershed event. I look forward to your deliberations’. Health and equity are fundamental human rights. Implementing Health in All Policies at the various levels of policy-making can make a real difference for health and health equity. The commitment of the participants to realize these rights is expressed in the Conference Statement. The Framework for country action will guide our practical efforts. However, the changes will not happen automatically. We need to continue to work hard at all levels of policy-making. We need to remind the governments about their responsibilities for health and health equity. We need to continue our efforts to bring about an understanding and will in our governments, politicians and other policy-makers to commit to health and health equity. They are fundamental values. They also make a difference in society, including enabling us to achieve many of our other important societal goals. As the Minister of Health and Social Services, I am very mindful of the fact that we need to take good care of our work force in the health sector, including in the health administration, as well as in our health institutions. Deep public health understanding is crucial for all health
professionals. In addition, people in the health sector need to understand how the rest of the society works. Necessary health data and ability to analyze that are important. Proper responses to be taken based on the situation need to be developed, decided upon and implemented. The necessary institutional capacities, structures and processes have to be built with a long-term strategy and commitment. The current world is more complex than the one we had in the 1980s, when Finland became a pioneer country for the WHO European Regional Office to implement the Health for All Strategy. More of the policy-making is done at levels beyond our national boundaries. Globalization has been strongest in the spheres of economics and trade, but important global processes are taking place in many other areas as well. We need to be clear on where decisions with potentially important health implications are made, by whom and when. We should share this type of information, and when needed combine our forces for analyses and action. I would like to congratulate the WHO on its recent work on the dialogue with other UN agencies and other international organizations on integrating health in their policies, in particular as regards improving the NCD situation. The work of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health was ground-breaking and the Health in All Policies approach provides a feasible approach for addressing them. I would like to thank the WHO for organizing this opportunity to exchange experiences. I would like to see WHO to continue to facilitate such exchange. Technical support in applying the i15
Downloaded from http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Institute of social and preventive medicine, University of Berne on September 13, 2014
Closing address by Ms Susanna Huovinen, Minister of Health and Social Services, Finland
i16
Closing address
this most important matter. As Hoda Rashad said today: ‘Health Promotion is our dream, Health in All Policies is our plan’. Dear participants, I hope that your stay in Helsinki has been useful, pleasant and joyful. Thank you for coming. It has been a pleasure and a great honor to host you. Let’s continue to work together for a better future. Thank you very much.
Downloaded from http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/ at Institute of social and preventive medicine, University of Berne on September 13, 2014
Health in All Policies approach would also be likely to be welcome by many Member States. Furthermore, it could be useful for policymaking at the various levels to have support from the WHO with the analyses of potential health impacts of the global, regional and bilateral draft agreements and treaties. We have made important steps forward. Let’s continue the work. As the Minister of Health and Social Services of Finland, I thank you all and hope to continue working with all of you on
