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Strengthening Essential Public Health Functions in the Balkans

This three-year regional project took place in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro (including the UN-administered province of Kosovo), and Albania between December 2001 and April 2005. The goal of this project was to improve the health of people living in the Balkan countries by strengthening the capacity of the public health systems both at the country and regional levels to respond effectively to priority health needs through supporting and facilitating local, national and regional responses to public health issues. The regional initiative built upon the accomplishments and success of the Continuing Education and Reinforcement of Public Health in Kosovo project (1999 - 2001).

The project reinforced the institutional capacity of Institutes of Public Health in these locations to provide training and deliver effective programs in the fields of health promotion, health information systems, and essential public health functions. In Kosovo, it also supported training programs for maternity nurses and physicians and hospital infections control, and provided the completion of the hospital master planning process and nursing supervision. The role of civil society organizations in public health advocacy and action was also enhanced, with the creation of new public health associations in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro, as well as continued support to the Public Health Association of Kosovo (established in 2001).

The project achievements include:

  • Strengthening of Epidemiological Surveillance and Monitoring: training in, application and utilization of field epidemiology, case identification, data collection, analysis and reporting;
  • Reinforcement of Health Information Systems: training in, application and utilization of HIS for facility-based, municipal, district and/or national levels, and vital statistics;
  • Laboratory Services Quality Assurance/Quality Control: training in utilization of competency assessment models, technical procedures for microbiology labs, quality management procedures and standards;
  • Training in Public Health: the operation, administration, computer-based inventory systems, IT systems, and upgrading of texts/documents all within Public Health Resource Centres;
  • Training in Health Promotion: introduction to new concepts/practices, health research survey methods and the application of research results for policy and programming;
  • The creation of new information about the prevalence, knowledge and attitudes of youth with respect to smoking, the results of which were used to develop tobacco control policies and programs, and which also contributed to the advocacy for the ratification of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control;
  • The development of the first-ever best practices guide for home-visiting nurses;
  • The completion of the pilot study on the prevalence of smoking and smoking cessation relapse among pregnant and post-partum women, which provided data on this issue for the first time; and
  • Creating awareness about the role of national public health associations (PHA), developing action plan for establishment of national PHA, and strengthening links with European, Canadian and international public health associations and communities.

The project also supported regional consultations on public health designed to encourage and facilitate discussions and action on important public health issues that affect the Balkans region.