Annexes to the Sihlwa-8 Meeting Report

EG on SIHLWA

8th meeting

7-9 October 2009

Riga, Latvia

Title / Annexes to the SIHLWA-8 Meeting report
Submitted by / SIHLWA Coordinating Chair and ITA
Summary / Note / This document contains the following annexes (which can also be found on the meeting page ):
Annex 1 – Scope and purpose of 8th SIHLWA meeting
Annex 2 – Agenda of the meeting
Annex 3 – Programmes of the meeting (overall programme and the subgroup programmes)
Annex 4 –List of participants
Annex 5 – Evaluation summary of the meeting
Annex 6 –List of meeting documents

ANNEXES TO THE SIHLWA-8 MEETING REPORT

ANNEX 1Scope and purpose of 8th SIHLWA meeting

Reference / SIHLWA 8/1/Info 1 (090809)
Title / Scope and purpose of the NDPHS SIHLWA EG
(see SIHLWA Terms of Reference and SIHLWA Action Plan for 2009 through )
Submitted by / SIHLWA Coordinating Chairman
Summary / Note / -
Requested action / For information

As stipulated by the Terms of Reference[1] provided by the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Wellbeing (NDPHS) governing bodies and as indicated in the Annual Action Plan for 2009[2] the Expert Group on “Social Inclusion, Healthy Lifestyles & Work Ability” (“EG on SIHLWA”) will organize its 8th meeting 7 (Wednsday) – 9 (Friday) October 2009 in Riga/Latvia, with the agreement and invitation by the Ministry of Health/ Latvia and hosted by the Riga Stradins University.

The EG SIHLWA consists of 4 sub-groups:

Subgroup on Alcohol (ALC) (Chair and Co-Chair to be identified and confirmed).
Subgroup on Adolescent Health and Socially-Rewarding Lifestyles (ADO) (Chair Mikko Vienonen[3]/ SIHLWA Coordinator; Co-chair Dr Aldona Jociute[4]/, Head of Bureau for the Health Promoting Schools, State Environment Health Centre, Lithuania.

Subgroup on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)(Chair Wiking Husberg[5]/ ILO-Russia; Co-chair Remigijus Jankauskas[6]/ Institute of Hygiene/MoH/ Lithuania)

Subgroup on Indigenous Mental Health, Addiction and Parenting (IMHAP[7]) (Chair Eric Costen[8]/ Health Canada, Director of Mental Health & Addictions; Co-Chair to be determined)

WHO-EURO Division of Health Programmes provides overall oversight from WHO side.

In the 6th SIHLWA meeting in September 2008, the Expert Group discussed the overall Action Plan for the EG SIHLWA and its sub-groups for 2009 and the final document was adopted by the Partnership Annual Conference in Ottawa/ Canada in November 2008. The SIHLWA Action Plan for 2009 is available on The Action Plan was further reviewed at SIHLWA-7 meeting in May 2009, and it was agreed that its implementation was to be continued as planned.

As usual, this 8th SIHLWA meeting will have all four sub-groups (see above) coming together, and the program will consist of joint sessions and individual sub-group sessions as indicated in attached proposed provisional program. This meeting is exceptional in the sense that it will be organized in connection with the Baltic Sea Network in Occupational Safety and Health, which is closely affiliated with the SIHLWA Sub-group on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). It is planned that we start the SIHLWA-8 meeting with a joint plenary session on Wednesday afternoon 7 October. We will split into 4 sub-groups all day on Thursday 8 October and finish with a joint concluding plenary session on Friday 9 October. This arrangement will give us some more time than previous SIHLWA-meetings and allowing better opportunity discussion and elaboration of plans in the sub-groups.

Provisional program and on-line registration form (including hotel reservation form) are to be found on

The latest update of SIHLWA members, the list of participants at previous SIHLWA-7 meeting and the list of NDPHS national counterparts (Committee of Senior representatives/ CSR) are all available on the above mentioned web-site. The role of national Senior Representative(s) is to oversee the nominations and to discuss the right representation from their respective countries and organizations. SIHLWA members are advised to be in close contact with them on the topics they want to bring to SIHLWA meetings and should there be any questions as to practical terms considering their participation (travel expenses, reporting, etc.).

Following the practice adopted by the NDPHS, the members and participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation, hopefully with the kind support of their respective ministries and/or institutions. This time unfortunately, due to global economic constraints, the organizers are unable to cover for meals during the meeting, and therefore participants need to be prepared to take care of their expenses even in this respect. As soon as possible we will provide exact information of all upcoming expenses. Certainly the expenses will be kept within reasonable limits and most likely within the per diem that in normal cases is provided by our respective partner countries and organizations.

The meeting is planned to start on Wednesday 7 October at 13 o’clock (registration and lunch at 12-13 o’clock) and will close on Friday 9 October at about 12:30. Therefore, most participants should be able to arrive in Riga even from abroad on Wednesday morning and leave on Friday afternoon, if they wish.

The meeting will focus on strategic implementation of activities related to the mandate and terms of reference given to the SIHLWA Expert Group. Furthermore, we will review the implementation status of SIHLWA Action Plan 2009, discuss plans for 2010 activities and discuss the progress of activities that were planned in respective sub-groups at SIHLWA-7 meeting in Östersund, Sweden in May 2009. Furthermore, we will study the outcome of the EU-Alcohol Conference held in Stockholm 21-22 September (with SIHLWA input). Updated plans for the Pre-meeting of the Partnership Annual Conference (PAC-6) to be held in Oslo 23-24 November on “Good Prison Health – Better Public Health – Safer Society” including the draft Declaration (“Principles of Cooperation between Prison Health and Public Health Services and Development of Safer Society”) will be looked upon from SIHLWA point of view. The over-all meeting programme is available on the above mentioned web-site and sub-group meeting agendas/programme (ADO, ALC, IMHAP and OSH) will be provided in August 2009 after the secretariat has received necessary feed-back from the subgroup chairs.

The Riga meeting aims to be practically oriented and sufficient time will be spent in each sub-group separately (all day on Thursday 8 October). However, review and update of administrative documents and plans will also be included in the programme. The issues on our agenda have grown in importance and are equally relevant for eastern and western regions of Northern Dimension.

Common SIHLWA topics to be discussed with all four sub-groups together will include:

Providing feedback on the draft SIHLWA Annual Report 2009.
Providing suggestions and ideas for the SIHLWA 2010 Action Plan, which will be submitted to CSR-16 (15-16 October, Riga)
Reviewing the recommendations of NDPHS/CSR Strategic Working Group based on the recommendations made by the external evaluation of 2008. Special task will be to identify and formulate into semi-final wording SIHLWA mid-term goals and how their implementation status will be monitored in 2010-2003.
Updating issues related to the NDPHS Database and NDPHS project pipe-line situation at present and how they can better relate with and support SIHLWA activities. “To be or not to be” if there is no money available?
Reviewing together the SIHLWA Info-Sheet content and providing the secretariat suggestions for improving its content.
Discussing the situation of sub-group based Info-Sheets (for OSH already available) and missing thematic papers (ADO, ALC and IMHAP) for the web-site and data-base. Steps forward.
Continuing work on strengthening links with main partners (especially WHO-EURO, ILO/Russia, and national actors on NCDs and healthy lifestyles).
European Commisssion adopted EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, Implications and possibilities for SIHLWA action and projects.
Strengthening collaboration with NDPHS Secretariat in Stockholm.
Other issues as considered relevant.
Following the recommendations of previous meetings, sufficient working time will be allocated to four sub-groups, namely 1) adolescent health and social well-being, 2) alcohol, 3) occupational safety & health, and 4) Indigenous mental health, addictions & parenting to elaborate on their own ongoing projects and country specific work:

The subgroup on adolescent health and socially-rewarding lifestyles (ADO)[9] will:

Report from all SIHLWA ADO sub-group participants on action taken in 2009 and plans for 2010 in their respective countries/ organizations
Discuss the content of thematic report on ADO for NDPHS Data-Base to compile a profile on youth’s health behaviour and on existing policies targeted at youth’s health at north-west Russia and Northern Europe. This “Northern dimension youths health profile” would comprise information on youths (10-25 year olds) substance misuse and other risk behaviour, such as sexual behaviour and nutrition. Evaluate and add to the work done in countries since SIHLWA-7 meeting.
Discuss the elaboration of ADO-Fact sheet (2 pp.) for the NDPHS web-site
Innovate on new project opportunities and ideas. Particular emphasis should be on strengthening our impact on social wellbeing as indicated in the NDPHS evaluation report 2008.
Discuss issues and collaborative possibilities between ADO and the section on Indigenous Mental Health, Addiction and Parenting (IMHAP).
Review the SIHLWA 2009 draft progress report from ADO point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
Review the SIHLWA 2010 draft Action Plan from ADO point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
European Commisssion adopted EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, Implications and possibilities for SIHLWA/ ADO action and projects.
Other issues as considered relevant.

The subgroup on alcohol (ALC)[10] will:

Reorganize itself to have clarity on its Chairperson and Co-chairperson(s).
Report from all SIHLWA ALC sub-group participants on action taken in 2009 and plans for 2010 in their respective countries/ organizations
Discuss the content of thematic report on ALC for NDPHS Data-Base and focus on brief intervention-related questions. The Country Profile Questionnaire developed after SIHLWA-7 will be discussed.
Feed-back from the seminar on EU law on alcohol control and assessment of its impact on national alcohol policy consideration, Riga 26-27 February, 2009. Lessons learned for SIHLWA upcoming work. (this topic was already on the agenda of previous SIHLWA-7 meeting, but full feed-back and contextual report of the meeting was not available then)
Feed-back from the EU Conference on Alcohol (Swedish EU Presidency) held in Stockholm 21-22 September and the following EU-Conference on Alcohol on 23 September. Lessons learned for SIHLWA upcoming work.
Innovate on new project opportunities and ideas. Particular emphasis should be on strengthening our impact on social wellbeing as indicated in the NDPHS evaluation report 2008.
Discuss issues and collaborative possibilities between ALC and the section on Indigenous Mental Health, Addiction and Parenting (IMHAP)
Review the SIHLWA 2009 draft progress report from ALC point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
Review the SIHLWA 2010 draft Action Plan from ALC point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
European Commisssion adopted EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, Implications and possibilities for SIHLWA/ ALC action and projects.
Other issues as considered relevant.

The subgroup on occupational safety and health (OSH)[11] will:

Report from all SIHLWA OSH sub-group participants on action taken in 2009 and plans for 2010 in their respective countries/ organizations
Review the progress of the ILO NW Russia OSH projects.
Review the progress on Healthy Life – Healthy Work, Partnership for health and safety/ NDPHS Strategy on Health at Work
Innovate on new project opportunities and ideas. Particular emphasis should be on strengthening our impact on social wellbeing as indicated in the NDPHS evaluation report 2008.
Discuss issues and collaborative possibilities between OSH and the section on Indigenous Mental Health, Addiction and Parenting (IMHAP)
Review the SIHLWA 2009 draft progress report from OSH point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
Review the SIHLWA 2010 draft Action Plan from OSH point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
European Commisssion adopted EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, Implications and possibilities for SIHLWA/ OSH action and projects.
Other issues as considered relevant.

The section on Indigenous Mental Health, Addiction and Parenting (IMHAP)[12]will:

Report from all SIHLWA IMHAPsub-group participants on action taken in 2009 and plans for 2010
Discuss synergies and potential for information sharing between the section on Indigenous Mental Health, Addiction and Parenting (IMHAP) and ADO, ALC and OSH sub-groups.
Discuss the development of IMHAP Terms of Reference and Short-Term Workplan. Examples of potential ideas for the Workplan include:
a possible thematic report on IMHAP for NDPHS Data-Base to compile a profile on indigenous and northern communities health & social wellbeing situation as discussed during SIHLWA-7.
the possible elaboration of IMHAP-Fact sheet (2 pp.) for the NDPHS web-site as discussed during SIHLWA-7.
Review the SIHLWA 2009 draft progress report from IMHAP point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
Review the SIHLWA 2010 draft Action Plan from IMHAP point of view and make necessary corrections and amendments.
Other issues as considered relevant.

Partner Countries and Partner Organizations have been invited to nominate their members/representatives to each SIHLWA sub-group[13]. However, understandably the newly established IMHAP-sub-group[14] would primarily interest partner countries with indigenous population groups such as e.g. Canada, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Russian Federation. Yet, all sub-groups are open to all partnership countries and organizations.

Nominees should represent high level expertise in health and social sector administration, research community, or NGO sector in the field of each subgroup sector respectively. Should the nominated SIHLWA subgroup representative not be able to attend, an alternate member/representative can be nominated. Each member/representative should ideally have 2 alternates, who would work as a team keeping each other informed of activities and meetings. This would enhance continuity and strengthen the Expert Group.

In addition to the officially nominated Partner-Country / Partner-Organization representatives for each sub-group, other ad hoc experts (observers) can also participate in the meeting as judged feasible by SIHLWA Coordinator, sub-group Chairpersons and the host country. Information about ad hoc participants (observers) would be provided to Partner Countries/ Partner Organizations prior to the meeting.

We expect that approximately 40-50 people would be present.

Unfortunately, due to financial constraints throughout our region this time there will not be simultaneous English – Russian interpretation, and all plenaries and sub-group meetings are conducted in English only. As soon as the financial situation improves and/or we can find a sponsor to cover interpretation costs, we would return back to the previous practice of having English-Russian simultaneous interpretation

Welcome to Riga in October!

Yours sincerely,

Mikko Vienonen
Coordinator of EG SIHLWA/ NDPHS
Sysimiehenkuja 1, 00670 Helsinki, Finland
Tel. mobile: +358-50-4421877
e-mail: / Hanna Koppelomäki
SIHLWA International Technical Adviser
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health/
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, 00250 Helsinki
Phone: +358 30 474 2929;
+358 50 3808540
Fax: +358 30 4742629
E-mail:
Agnese Rabovica
Ministry of Health
Director of Department of European Affairs and
International Cooperation
Phone: +371-67876060
Fax: +371-67876021

Meeting background documentation in due course of time to be found on

ANNEX 2 – Agenda of the meeting

Reference / SIHLWA 8/3
Title / Provisional Agenda SIHLWA-8 (28.09.09)
Submitted by / Chair
Summary/Note / -
Requested action / Adoption

Opening of the meeting and welcome
SIHLWA-8 key-note presentations
Adoption of the Agenda

Adoption of SIHLWA-8 programme
Making note of SIHLWA functionaries in 4 sub-groups (ALC, ADO, IMHAP & OSH)
Making note of SIHLWA-8 rapporteur(s) including sub-group/section rapporteurs
Discussing nominations of SIHLWA members
For approval SIHLWA-7 (Östersund 4-5 May 2009) meeting report

Short information report of ADO, ALC, OSH and IMHAP
For information and further elaboration SIHLWA 2009 draft Annual Report
For Information and discussion draft report of NDPHS Strategic Working Group Report (follow-up of NDPHS external evaluation report 2008)
Start-up discussion of SIHLWA Action Plan 2010 (- > 2013) based on past experiences and new challenges coming from the NDP-SWG report.
Start-up discussion of SIHLWA renewal/update of Terms of Reference (2007) based on past experiences and new challenges coming from the NDP-SWG report.
Discussion and planning of PAC-6 (Oslo 25 Nov. 2009) and SIHLWA’s role at the 23-24 November PAC-6 side-event conference on “Good Prison Health - Better Public Health - Safer Society” and possible input to draft Declaration on the topic.
Four sub-group/section parallel meetings (ALC, ADO, OSH, IMHAP)

Each group provide their own documents as relevant
Reports and conclusions of sub-groups (ADO, ALC,OSH, IMHAP)

Next meeting
Any other business
Closing of the meeting

ANNEX 3 – Programmes of the meeting (overall programme and the subgroup programmes)

EG on SIHLWA 8th Meeting

Riga, Latvia

Jointly with 15th Annual Meeting of the Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety

Time: Wed. 7- Fri. 9 October 2009

Meeting venue: RigaStradinsUniversity,

Address: 16 Dzirciema Street, Riga, Latvia

Reference / 8- SIHLWA 8/3/1/rev1
Title / Provisional Programme (DRAFT 30.09.09)
Submitted by / SIHLWA Coordinating Chairman
Summary / Note / This Provisional Programme includes also annotations specifying
organizations and other relevant information
Requested action / For further elaboration and comment by Sub-Group Chairs and
members

SIHLWA-8 1st DAY early afternoon Wednesday 7 October 2009