Council of Europe INGO Health Grouping

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Council of EuropeINGO Health Grouping

• Irene Donadio
• and Paul De Raeve
• INGOs Heath Grouping

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THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE Guardian of Democratic
Security

• ORIGINS AND MEMBERSHIP
• The Council of Europe is the continent's
• oldest political organisation, founded in 1949
• 46 countries, including 21 countries from
• Central and Eastern Europe
• Has granted observer status to 5 more countries
  (the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan
  and Mexico)
• Is distinct from the 25-nation European Union,
  but no country has ever joined the Union without
  first belonging to the Council of Europe
• Has its headquarters in Strasbourg

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AIMS

• Defends human rights, parliamentary democracy and
  the rule of law
• Develops continent-wide agreements to standardise
  member countries' social and legal practices
• Promotes awareness of a European identity based
  on shared values and cutting across different
  cultures.

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AIMS

• Since 1989, its main job has become
• Acting as a political anchor and human rights
  watchdog for Europe's post-communist democracies
• Assisting the countries of central and eastern
  Europe in consolidating political, legal and
  constitutional reform in parallel with economic
  reform
• Providing know-how in areas such as human rights,
  local democracy, education, culture and the
  environment.

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HOW IT WORKS

• The main component parts of the Council of Europe
  are
• The Committee of Ministers, composed of the 46
  Foreign ministers or their Strasbourg-based perm
  reps
• (The Organisation's decision-making body)
• The Parliamentary Assembly, grouping 630 members
  from the 46 national parliaments.
• The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities,
  composed of a Chamber of Local Authorities and a
  Chamber of Regions.
• The secretariat headed since September 2004 by
  Secretary General Terry Davis (United Kingdom,
  SOC),

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Partnership with NGOs

• NGOs are key for
• the COE visibility strategy
• Participatory status (since 2003)
• Land of Opportunities
• Exploring new paths of active cooperation

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Active Participation

• Parliamentary Committees
• Intergovernmental Committees (experts groups)
• Access to Secretary General
• Bridge between EU and COE decision makers
  Junker Report
• Key for Central and Eastern Europe advocacy

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Liaison Committee of INGOsPermanent structural
link

• The Council has a permanent structure for
  co-operation with international NGOs
• The annual Plenary Conference of NGOs decides on
  the general lines of action for the year to come
  and sets objectives for its Liaison Committee.
• The Liaison Committee, established in 1976, has
  36 members. It meets at least three times a year
  liaises with the Secretariat General
• Key people
• President
• Presidents of the 10 thematic Groupings
• NGO Unit

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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGRationale for developing
a Strategic and Action Plan
Aims to reach a common understanding and
agreement on what the objectives, the actions and
the expected outcomes should be for the coming
years. Roadmap for policy making leading to
clear priority setting, with concrete actions to
be taken forward by the members of the Health
grouping. For each actions agreed on, a member of
the health grouping will take the lead and clear
deadlines will be set out. Result in ownership
of the members. Plan is compatible with the
agreed Multi-Year Framework programme presented
in the January Conference of INGOs.
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGGoal Mission
The NGO Health grouping sets targets consistent
with the goals of the institutions of the Council
of Europe. The mission of the Health Grouping
of the Council of Europe INGOs is to support a
human rights based approach to health policy in
Europe, focussed on quality, equality and
universal access via the fostering of the
cooperation and advocacy capacity of the Members
of the CoE Health grouping.
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective ONE
Map out HGM experience/evidence on the
prevention, the accessibility, equality, quality
of care and sustainability of health services in
Europe LEAD Each Member of the Health Grouping
to provide INFO to lead DEADLINE intermediate
report January 2007 final report October 2007
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective ONE
Define 4 common priorities for 2 years for joined
action of the HGM and create a task force for
each priority LEAD Task Force Delegate DEADLINE
December 2007 o Prevention (16 INGOs) o Aging (10
INGOs) o Maternity and Child Care (5
INGOs) o Gender and Health (5 INGOs).
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective ONE
Strengthen synergies with the European Union and
the WHO through the INGO Liaison Committee LEAD
President, Vice-President, Members HG DEADLINE
2006-2007 Inform about the outcomes of
political debates on Health in the European
Institutions through the INGO HG Briefing
Notes Highlight opportunities for
synergies Alert HGM about window opportunities
for policy actions
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective ONE
Promote the model of participative status in the
European and International Institutions LEAD
Each member of the health grouping DEADLINE
Continuous work Draft summary describing past
and present achievements of the INGO HG Online
publication of the findings
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective TWO
Develop a stakeholder approach taking into
account the perspective of service providers and
target groups/beneficiaries LEAD
EASPD DEADLINE December 2006 Development of
models of good practice or stakeholder
cooperation protocols with the Council of
Europe SWOT analysis of stakeholder cooperation
in East, West, Northern, Southern Europe
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective TWO
Increase the understanding of the ongoing and the
future work of the COE institutions in order to
make a timely and accurate contribution to the
policy making process LEAD All Health Grouping
Members, HG President and Vice President DEADLINE
April 2007 Draft a systematic summary of the
most relevant initiatives taken by the
Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee of
Ministers in the field of health Research on
the relevant European Court of Human Rights
jurisprudence as regards the right to health To
list and discuss ongoing or planned work that
COE, DG Social Cohesion and the PACE Health
Committee, have undertaken in the health field
Concentrate on the health articles in the Social
Charter and update members on the progress made
in the CoE Member States (Marie-José Schmitt)
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective TWO
Play an active role in promoting the Health
Policy Agenda within the COE institutions. DEADLIN
E Continuous work Increase Cooperation with
relevant CoE officials and parliamentarians
Ensure that the materials produced (i.e. resource
documents, position statements, etc.) are widely
distributed within the COE Participate in
Expert Groupings Participate actively and
contribute as equal participants in the
discussions of expert groups on health.
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective TWO
HG to develop and implement a strategy to
influence the CoE position on social rights
related to health DEADLINE Continuous work
Follow-up the policy-making process at the
Committee of Ministers Ensure that input is
provided at the right stage of the process
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan Overarching
Objective TWO
Promote the implementation of the CoE
Recommendations in the field of health and other
social rights related to health DEADLINE
Continuous work Analyse the practical
implications that the CoE recommendations in the
field of health have already had on the member
states
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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan EXPECTED
OUTCOMES Objective 1

• Empowerment of HG members activities - report
  based on the mapping exercise.
• Recommendations of this report are taken into
  account in the drafting of the Health and Social
  policies of the CoE.
• Recommendations on the 3 key priority areas are
  taken into account by the European and
  International Policy makers.

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INGOs - HEALTH GROUPINGAction Plan EXPECTED
OUTCOMES Objective 2

• Agreed framework and guidelines to implement the
  stakeholder approach.
• The Health Grouping is involved and consulted on
  a regular basis in the COE policy making process.
  
• Health and Social policies are more adapted to
  the needs of the citizens.

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Council of EuropeINGO Health Grouping

• Paul De Raeve Irene Donadio
• President Vice President
• efn_at_efn.be idonadio_at_ippfen.org