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Closing the Gap
Please see the flash video about health inequalities in Europe and the Closing the Gap project.
Project coordination
EuroHealthNet www.eurohealthnet.eu
Contract holder/project coordination
Germany, Federal Centre for Health Promotion, BZgA www.bzga.de
Aim and objectives
Reducing socio-economic health inequalities is one of the main challenges within the public health sector in Europe. It is, nevertheless, unclear what is known and being done in European partner countries; how do policy processes impact the health gap and how should effective interventions be shaped?
The aim of ‘Closing the Gap’ (2004 - 2007) was hence to develop a European knowledge base and infrastructure in order to implement and strengthen strategies and actions to reduce health inequalities at different levels:
- General: To develop a clear and coherent definition of reducing health inequalities, through dialogue at EU, national and local level.
- EU policy level: To identify policy processes initiated by the European Institutions and related agencies that can have an impact on the reduction of health inequalities and to integrate or strengthen the health aspects of these policy developments.
- National policy level: To analyse and map policies, structures and actions being taken to tackle health inequalities in participating countries, and to share information and expertise in fields that are key to tackling health inequalities. These fields include awareness raising, health impact assessment (HIA) and health in other policy areas, developing evidence and evaluation, and supporting EU regions. Each participating country will apply what they have learned to develop and implement their own Strategy for Action to tackle health inequalities.
- Local level: To bring together Good Practices on local policy measures and interventions that are effective and transferable to other European countries, through a European Directory of Good Practices to reduce health inequalities.
- Infrastructure: To establish and maintain a consortium of 21 national public health and health promotion agencies working on the reduction of health inequalities in Europe and to enhance joint working with the EU Institutions in this field.
Outcomes
- Position paper on tackling health inequalities
- Situation analysis in each of the 21 countries, completed by multi-stakeholder groups and tool kit for different action fields; for profiles see country pages in the portal; for overview see Taking Action on Health Inequalities publication
- Ongoing monitoring of EU policies that impact on the health gap recognizing four priority areas
- European Directory of good practices to reduce health inequalities on site
- Health Inequalities Portal
- Week of equity in Health: National events on tackling health inequalities in February 2007
- "Closing the Gap" Conference 'Action for Health Equity' in Brussels.
Main documents
Brochure "www.health-inequalities.eu - Closing the Gap"
Information about the new european Health Inequalities Portal
The Consortium of European Partners for Equity in Health came up with a position paper in which definition of health inequalities is further elaborated.
‘Tackling Health Inequalities in the EU: The Contribution of Various EU Level Actors.
Taking Action on Health Equity. This publication contains summaries of what each of the 21 ´Closing the Gap´ partners are doing to address health inequalities in their countries, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of this 3-year initiative.
An overview analysis was conducted of the national information presented per country on the Health Inequalities Portal, and the initial results published in EuroHealth magazine.
Jurczak K, Costongs C, Reemann H (2005). National policies to tackle health inequalities in Europe. EuroHealth, 11, 2, 24-26.
Health Inequalities: a Challenge for Europe
by Ken Judge, Stephen Platt, Caroline Costongs and Kasia Jurczak
An independent, expert report commissioned by, and published under the auspices of, the UK Presidency of the EU (October 2005)
Read more about the publication or download it.
© 2009 Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) | last update: 2009-11-06