Clear thinking needed on private public partnerships for health

Speaking at the IUHPE Global Conference on health promotion in Geneva, EuroHealthNet Director Clive Needle has raised the need for practitioners and policy makers to carefully consider the implications of working with intersectoral partnerships.

The Conference has held several debates on developments involving new forms of partnerships, during which ethical, practical and professional questions have been raised.

A common theme emerging is that trust between partners is essential, with evaluations of numerous initiatives showing that leadership, transparency and planning are among other key factors.

In one session, an example was cited of an opportunity to promote workforce health within a tobacco company and the ethical dilemmas involved, which provoked varying reactions.

Clive Needle says this is highly relevant for EU approaches to health. At the event he moderated a European Commission session on how the Europe 2020 plan could impact on health in the continent, which included speakers from public health, local government, NGOs and business.

Another session run by Business in the Community, with whom EuroHealthNet has worked on tackling social determinants of health, sought to identify health benefits and business imperatives for joint work.

It is clear that the nature of modern economies and what we know about health determinants means that the need for working in new ways will become increasingly important during the next decade.

To stimulate that, much greater clarity is needed about varying models. For example EuroHealthNet is active in the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health where many multinational food industries are represented.

Its latest evaluation shows initiatives have been generated but much more remains to be done and negotiated. However in non regulatory environments such as social networking major opportunities have yet to be explored.

Via its projects and networking  EuroHealthNet will continue to investigate these positive and negative factors, and welcomes comments, experiences and suggestions from all potential partners and stakeholders.

More information about the IUHPE Conference can be found on the conference website. Please click here for more information about the Europe 2020 Strategy or here to learn more about the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. 

[Photo: “urban hand shake" by P Kinski, available under a Creative Commons License]