The two-day Workshop on strengthening public health development in Bosnia and Herzegovina was finalised on 1 October 2009 in Sarajevo. The Workshop “Strengthening capacities of the Public Health Institutes in Bosnia and Herzegovina” is a part of the project financed by the European Union through IPA funds with 1.5 million euro, which will be implemented in the next two years. The project is coordinated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and implemented by the EPOS Health Management and ICON Health and Social Policy, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Republika Srpska. The Project has three main elements: – To support the Public Health Institutes in strengthening health promotion and prevention in order to improve preparedness to public health threats; – To support further developments in collection, monitoring and evaluation of health related data; – To support reporting of public health data complying with international recommendations and requirements;
Jadranka Mihić, Task Manager for Social Cohesion and Development within the European Commission Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, stated: „The first part of the Project is related to the reform of the public health institutes which need to be prepared for the process of collection of certain information related to the population’s health conditions, and this is the process that need to be in compliance with the requests of various international institutions and organisations, such as World Health Organisation, EUROSTAT, UNICEF and other partner organisations. It is necessary to harmonise the reporting and adjusting health indicator sets with the requirements of the international community. The second part of the project includes trainings for all employees of the public health institutes in order to facilitate collecting and reporting on collected health related data“.
The objective of the Project is also for all the health related information for the population from cantonal and entity levels, to be collected at state level in order for the public health institutes to have a comprehensive information on health situation of the whole population.
Lothar Springer, Leader of the Project „Strengthening capacities of the Public Health Institutes in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, expressed his satisfaction that the Project gathered all relevant parties from Federation of BiH, Republika Srpska and Brčko District and stated:
„The creation, collection and distribution of reliable health related data enables us focus on priorities which is very important for decision making process in health sector. It is one of the preconditions of the European integration process“, stated Mr Springer. He also added that the Project will include technical assistance on three levels: cantonal, entity and state level, in order for all the health related information to be collected at one, state level.
The introduction of an efficient reporting system requires also software support, which was announced at the Workshop by Safet Omerović, Minister of Health of Federation of BiH.
„The Workshop gives us guidelines on how to improve public health, guidelines on setting the parameters in public health and its monitoring, which will result in better planning, better allocation, more efficient and more available public health protection, thus reducing imbalances to a minimum, because we all have equal right on health protection. Such projects will help us reach that goal“, stated Mr Omerović.
The main conclusion of the Workshop was that the implementation of this Project required primarily an increased communication and cooperation between the health institutes in Federation of BiH, Republika Srpska and Brčko District in order to have the necessary information at state level. It is important to promote the knowledge through seminars, workshops, study trips and visits by EU experts, and to educate people in order to collect and process the data in a more efficient manner as well as to establish working groups which will coordinate activities of the Project.
