Set up a European Health Response Mechanism to prepare the EU more effectively
A European monitoring, reporting and notification system is needed to overcome shortages of medicines and medical devices
Support for digitalisation of healthcare through a European eHealth Record
To close gaps exposed by COVID-19 and ensure that health systems can face future threats to public health, an ambitious EU health programme is needed, say MEPs.
On Friday, Parliament adopted its position on the Commission proposal to step up the EU’s action in the health sector significantly, through the so-called “EU4Health Programme” with 615 votes to 34 and 39 abstentions.
COVID-19 has shown that the EU urgently needs an ambitious programme to ensure that European health systems can face future health threats, so that the EU remains the healthiest region in the world, MEPs say. According to Parliament, this would not have been possible had the budget been reduced to €1.7 billion as proposed by member states. In the recent compromise on the EU’s long-term budget, MEPs convinced them to triple the budget for the programme (€5.1 billion).
Cross-border health threats
EU4Health is intended to prepare the EU more thoroughly for major cross-border health threats and make health systems more resilient. This should enable the EU to face not only future epidemics, but also long-term challenges such as an ageing population and inequalities in health.
MEPs also want to increase cooperation at EU level to be better prepared in case of a health crisis i.e. by supporting the creation of a European Health Response Mechanism. An EU communication portal for the public should also be set up to share information that has been thoroughly checked, to send alerts to European citizens and fight against disinformation. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) should have stronger mandates.
Ensuring medicines and medical devices are available and affordable in all member states
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the many weaknesses of national health systems including their dependence on non-EU countries to supply medicines, medical devices as well as personal protective equipment. The programme should therefore support the development of a European system for monitoring, reporting and notifying shortages of medicines, medical devices, vaccines, diagnostic tools, and other healthcare products. This would prevent the single market from becoming fragmented and ensure that those products are more available and affordable. Their supply chains would also be less dependent on non-EU countries.
To reach the programme’s objectives, the report also proposes greater focus on disease prevention by addressing health risks such as the harmful use of alcohol and tobacco , more robust health systems and digitalised healthcare by creating and applying the European eHealth Record. MEPs also want to achieve universal health coverage including access to sexual and reproductive health and rights and to strengthen the EU’s fight against cancer in synergy with Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.
To ensure the programme is implemented effectively, MEPs propose setting up a Steering Group consisting of independent public health experts.
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After the vote, Parliament’s rapporteur Cristian-Silviu Buşoi (EPP, RO) said: “The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the need for well-defined and adequately-financed health instruments. We also need to boost innovation and invest more in health in general. It was crucial to increase funding for the EU4Health Programme from €1.7 billion to €5.1 billion in order to be able to deal with future pandemics and health threats, and to make our health systems more resilient.”
Next steps
Parliament is now ready to start negotiations with member states so that the programme can be implemented from the beginning of 2021.
Background
On 28 May 2020, the Commission put forward a new stand-alone EU4Health Programme for 2021-2027 as part of the Recovery Plan. The Health Programme was previously under the initial EU long-term budget 2021-2027 as one element of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
It’s come about through an alliance of the world’s largest youth movements and organizations, together with the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Foundation.
The “Global Youth Mobilization for Generation Disrupted” is being led by the so-called ‘Big 6’ youth organizations (Young Men’s Christian Association, YMCA; World Young Women’s Christian Association, YWCA; World Organization of the Scout Movement; World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts; International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, IFRC; and The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award), which collectively includes some 250 million young people, and aims to support young people to come up with ways of mitigating the ravages of COVID-19 worldwide.
The initiative will feature heavily at the upcoming Global Youth Summit in April 2021, powered in part by some $5 million from the WHO and UN Foundation-generated COVID Solidarity Response Fund to support local and national youth organizations, including grants for youth-led solutions and an accelerator programme to scale up existing response efforts.
WHO’s leadership, the Big 6 and youth organizations around the world, are calling on governments, businesses and policy makers to back the Global Youth Mobilization effort and commit to investing in the future of young people.
These measures will directly support young people engaged at the grassroots level to tackle some of the most pressing health and societal challenges resulting from the pandemic, said the UN health agency. “WHO is honoured to join this truly exciting andpowerful global movement to mobilize and empower youth worldwide to be the driving force of the recovery to COVID-19,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Joining forces with the Big 6 and the United Nations Foundation provides WHO and the world a unique opportunity to learn from hundreds of millions of young people and be guided by their sustainable solutions to help communities build back better from the pandemic.”
Long-lasting consequences
While the direct health impacts of the pandemic on young people have been generally less severe, they are being disproportionately affected by the longer-lasting consequences of the pandemic.
This includes disruption to education, economic uncertainty, loss or lack of employment opportunities, impacts on physical and mental health, and trauma from domestic violence.
Significant mental anxiety, for example, brought on by COVID-19 has been identified in nearly 90 per cent of young people; more than a billion students in almost every country have been impacted by school closures; and one in six young people worldwide have lost their jobs.
But at the same time, young people are also driving change and implementing solutions in response to COVID-19 by taking action through community-based interventions and voluntary service, such as taking on a first responder role by delivering food and supplies to those in need.
The Global Youth Mobilization will draw attention to the urgent need for solutions to support young people, and to highlight the critical leadership role young people are playing in their communities to counter the effects of the pandemic.
Statement of support
“We are proud to team up with the WHO to provide opportunities and funding to help millions of young people across the globe to respond to local challenges related to COVID-19 in their communities”, said the leadership of the Big 6 in a joint statement.
“The mobilization will provide direct financial and programmatic support to youth organizations at the national and international level. We believe that young people have the solutions to solve their own problems, and by providing a global youth platform, combined with national activation for youth projects, we can unleash the skills, enthusiasm and desire for young people to be a force for good in their communities.”
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<p class="content__segment combx meterwall__content">A $2.5 million grant to the National WWI Museum and Memorial will allow it to hire an endowed curator for faith and religion, the museum announced Monday. </p>
Lilly Endowment Inc. gave the grant through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative, according to a release. The WWI Museum is one of 18 institutions to receive a grant from the initiative, which awarded a total of more than $43 million.
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<p class="content__segment combx meterwall__content">The grant will allow the museum to explore how World War I affected religion and faith. It will work to preserve related artifacts and make findings accessible to the public, in part through online exhibitions. </p>
The grant will help the museum achieve three goals outlined in its strategic plan: Improve visitors’ experience; tell the stories of minorities, women and indigenous people who served in World War I; and make the collection accessible to a global audience.
“We are thrilled to have the support of Lilly Endowment for this strategic initiative that fits within our Three Big Ideas,” WWI Museum CEO Matthew Naylor said in the release. “The endowed curatorial position and accompanying support will allow us to provide global leadership to this area of WWI research and add considerably to our understanding of the Great War and its enduring impact.”
Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly and his sons through gifts of stock in the family’s pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. The philanthropic organization remains a separate entity.
The WWI Museum received a $655,000 donation earlier in December to aid in its digitization efforts. Staff members have been working on digitizing the museum’s collection since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Employees already have transcribed more than 13,000 letters and artifacts, and more than 2,000 object records have been digitized this year.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) announced the next phase of its Supplies Partnership to secure essential contraception and maternal health medicines for millions of women and adolescent girls over the next decade.
“The global community must act now with commitments to support women and girls”, stressed UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem. “Failing to do so will have dire consequences: more unintended pregnancies, more unsafe abortions and more women dying from preventable causes”.
With an estimated investment of $2.5 billion by 2030, the renewed Partnership has the potential to prevent 141 million unintended pregnancies, 328,000 maternal deaths and 42 million unsafe abortions by that time.
Despite mitigation efforts, the coronavirus pandemic has slowed or even reversed many countries’ decades of progress in family planning, while pandemic-related restrictions, such as lockdowns, together with fears of contracting the virus, have led to fewer women seeking reproductive health services.
“With countries leading the charge, we must rally to improve women’s health and well-being globally, especially at this time of heightened vulnerabilities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”, urged the UNFPA head.
Support imperative
Countries and partners around the world are making bold commitments to support the next phase of the programme, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom – together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Kühne Foundation, according to UNFPA.
To date, contraceptive and maternal health services supplied by the programme have had the potential to avert 89 million unintended pregnancies, 227,000 maternal deaths, 1.4 million children’s deaths and 26.8 million unsafe abortions.
And since 2007, the UNFPA Supplies programme has mobilized more than $1.8 billion in support.
“A more inclusive and prosperous world can only be achieved by addressing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people, and that’s exactly what we’re working towards in this Partnership”, said Karina Gould, Canadian Minister of International Development, in a press release.
Countries in central Asia, the southern Caucasus and the Balkans share technical expertise and resources with each other via regional hubs set up by WHO/Europe in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Serbia respectively. The countries in each hub share similar levels of socioeconomic development, population health profiles, and health system challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these links proved vital.
“Being on hand when emergencies hit has become one of the main benefits of this structure. Experts are leading from the outset, ready to respond to actual needs and able to build on established relationships with stakeholders and partners as well as work across WHO programmes,” says Dr Dorit Nitzan, Acting Director of Emergencies, WHO/Europe.
Established in 2017, the 3 hubs cover 15 countries. In each hub, a coordinator ensures that support is available from WHO to monitor and assess emergency preparedness and, more recently, COVID-19 response capacities and needs in each country. The closeness of these coordinating teams facilitated a swift and agile response to the virus.
“We are building bridges of trust that are not visible to our eyes,” is how Dr Tasnim Atatrah, Coordinator of the Central Asian Hub, describes the work of the hubs. Alongside parallel teams in the southern Caucasus and the Balkans, her hub adapts COVID-19 technical advice from WHO to take into account local sensitivities and health system constraints.
“Before the pandemic, we worked closely with countries on strengthening their emergency preparedness core capacities in line with the International Health Regulations 2005,” she explains. “This then put us in a good position to work with countries to assess needs and capacities in relation to COVID-19, and collaborate with stakeholders and international experts to help countries better withstand the effects of the virus.”
By sharing human resources and cutting travel costs, the hub system increases efficiency. Hub teams were well placed to provide timely COVID-19 guidance, matching WHO and partners’ support to the needs of individual countries. The familiarity of the teams with country-specific health systems, ministries of health, experts’ networks, civil society organizations and United Nations country offices proved to be critical in engaging countries with the European Region’s COVID-19 response.
Mobilizing resources
At the start of the pandemic, a WHO expert assessed the equipment, resources and biosafety levels in laboratories in the 3 countries of the Southern Caucasus Hub. “The expert was able to improve COVID-19 diagnostics in line with WHO standards, through round the clock engagement with laboratory staff, baseline assessments, face-to-face and online consultations, and on-the-job training,” says Vasily Esenamanov, Coordinator of the Southern Caucasus Hub.
Bosnia and Herzegovina also received a technical expert from neighbouring Serbia, highlighting the role of the hub in encouraging intercountry solidarity and support, which Abebayehu Assefa Mengistu, Coordinator of the Balkan Hub, says “are more important than ever during a crisis, and, in this case, crucial to containing the pandemic”.
In the Central Asia Hub, Kyrgyzstan successfully presented its evidence-based preparedness and response plan to international partners via the hub platform, following an assessment by experts in emergencies. This ability to mobilize resources helped other countries gain support from regional partners, allowing them to improve surge capacity and provide equipment and training for their health workforce.
The hubs’ wealth of knowledge ensures that WHO guidelines and tools are optimized according to each country’s socioeconomic reality and needs. On-the-ground scientific assessments assist countries in developing their health systems and improving emergency preparedness, as well as promoting intensive and fit-for-purpose activities in every aspect of public health.
