29June 2009 mvi

EG on SIHLWA
8th Meeting
Riga, Latvia
7-9October2009 /

To: NDPHS Contact Persons and SIHLWA Expert Group members

Subject:

Pre-announcement to the 8th Meeting of the NDPHS SIHLWA Expert Group(“Social Inclusion, Healthy Lifestyles & Work Ability”)

Riga, Latvia 7-9 October 2009

Meeting venue:

Riga Stradins University, Latvia

Dear Colleagues,

With the agreement of the Ministry of Healthof Latvia, the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Wellbeingthe 8thmeeting of the Expert Group “Social Inclusion, Healthy Lifestyles and Work Ability” (SIHLWA-8)will be held in Riga, Latvia7-9 October, 2009. The meeting will be organized in connection with the Baltic Sea Network in Occupational Safety and Health, which is closely affiliated with the SIHLWASub-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, 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 in the sub-groups allowing better opportunity discussion and elaboration of plans.

Scope and purpose of the meeting, provisional program and on-line registration form

(including hotel reservation form)are in preparation and when ready will at the latest by early August be available on A separate update and reminder will be sent.We anticipate that the price per day at SIA Islande Hotel ( ) will be about 55 Euro.

The main purpose of this pre-announcement is to allow you to book your busy schedules.Thisinformation is also sent to previously nominated members of the SIHLWA Expert Group, and temporary advisers and observers who previously have attended. The latest update of SIHLWA members is attached for your easy reference (ANNEX 1).The list of participants at previous SIHLWA-7 meeting is provided in ANNEX 2. The list of NDPHS national counterparts (Committee of Senior representatives) is provided in ANNEX 3. Their role 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 coverfor 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, which we try to keep as reasonable as possible.

The meeting is planned to start on Wednesday 7 Octoberat 12 o’clock and will close on Friday9 Octoberat about 12:30. Therefore, most participants should be able to arrive even from abroad on Wednesday morning and leave on Fridayafternoon, 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(see ANNEX 4), 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 final Scope and Purpose, common meeting agenda and sub-group meeting agendas and programmes (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. 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.

The Expert Group SIHLWA presently consists of four subgroups (see below). All four subgroups work simultaneously:

  • Subgroup on Adolescent health and socially-rewarding lifestyles
  • Subgroup on Alcohol
  • Sub-group on Indigenous Mental Health, Addiction and Parenting (IMHAP)
  • Sub-group on Occupational Safety and Health

Partner Countries and Partner Organizations have been invited to nominate their members/representatives to each SIHLWA sub-group[1]. However, understandably the newly established IMHAP-sub-group[2] would primarily interest partner countries with indigenous population groups such as e.g. Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russian Federation. Yet, all sub-groups are open to all partnership countries and organizations.See attached the latest update of nominations[3] in the SIHLWA membership list (ANNEX 1).

Nominees should representhigh 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.

Please note also that the latest 5th Partnership Annual Conference (PAC-5 Ottawa, Canada 19 November 2008) has strongly recommended, following the conclusions made by the external evaluation report that we should strengthen our input especially on the “social well-being and social inclusion sectors”, as our focus was considered to be too much oriented towards public health action. We only can shift our emphasis into social well-being, if we get experts, who are able to help us with their special know-how in this field. We trust that the NDPHS Senior Representatives in respective countries and organizations will help us in their identification (see ANNEX 3).

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.

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
Arinatie 3 A,
FIN-00370 Helsinki
Phone: +358 30 474 2929;
+358 50 3808540
Fax: +358 9 506 1087
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

ANNEXES:

ANNEX 1: SIHLWA table of nominated members and alternates 2009

ANNEX 2: List of participants in previous SIHLWA-7 meeting(Östersund/Sweden)

ANNEX 3: List of contact persons for NDPHS 2009

ANNEX 4: SIHLWA Action Plan 2009

1

SIHLWA_8_pre-announcement_Eng_(290609)

[1] However, sending representatives for one or two sub-groups only is also possible.

[2]Note: IMHAP sub-group is still waiting for final approval by NDPHS governing bodies.

[3] Please note that all NDPHS member countries and organizations have not yet given their nominations previously. Therefore this is also an opportunity to review and update the nomination(s).