Policy Engagement

Health 2020 identifies the enhancement of well-being as a key target of health policies across the WHO European Region. As a result, European Region Member States are now required to provide an overview on well-being within country Highlights on Health reports. However, effective measurement of, and reporting on well-being are currently limited by insufficient data sources, a reliance on mortality and morbidity statistics rather than measures of positive health, and difficulties associated with presenting and interpreting complex information.

If Health 2020 targets are to be met, there is a need to incorporate new evidence that informs the design and implementation of culturally relevant health policy and practice and enables countries to more effectively report on well-being.

Members of the Centre are therefore involved in developing technical guidance to help strengthen the capacity of WHO European Region Member States to incorporate new forms of evidence on well-being into policy making.

Centre members are also developing a toolkit on intercultural competence and diversity sensitivity within WHO European Region health systems. This resource will provide detailed guidance for policy makers and practitioners working to improve health care access and services for the regions increasingly diverse migrant population.

The Centre is happy to engage with policy makers, researchers, practitioners and community groups in WHO European Region Member States and beyond, who might be interested in developing their understanding of the cultural contexts of health, or who wish to collaborate.

Expert Advisory Groups

An expert advisory group (EAG) has been established to help WHO determine how best to approach the issues being addressed by the CCH project. The group, which met for the first time in January 2015, comprises experts from a variety of disciplines and professional backgrounds, such as anthropology, history, public health, cultural studies, philosophy, geography epidemiology and statistics.

Professor Mark Jackson is Chair of the CCH EAG, and sits on the European Advisory Committee on Health Research. Dr Felicity Thomas participates in the CCH EAG and both Professor Jackson and Dr Thomas have participated in the EAG to enhance Health 2020 monitoring and reporting.

EAG members come from across the WHO European Region and beyond.

Some of the outputs from the EAG can be accessed via the following links:

Cultural contexts of health: the use of narrative research in the health sector

Beyond bias: exploring the cultural contexts of health and well-being measurement

A focus on culture: developing a systematic approach to the cultural contexts of health in the WHO European Region (2016)