Invitation

Thirtieth Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe Second session Copenhagen, Denmark, 1–2 December 2022 (hybrid session, partly open to all Member States of the WHO European Region) EUR/SC30(2)/3 14 November 2022 | 220940 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH Implementation of resolution EUR/RCSS/R1 Update ANTECEDENTS 1. At the special session of the Regional Committee for Europe in May 2022, resolution EUR/RCSS/R1 was adopted by the Member States of the WHO European Region. The resolution included three action items for the WHO Regional Director for Europe, described under paragraphs 4–6. 2. Pursuant to paragraph 4 of the resolution, the Regional Director was requested to explore short-term and long-term options to safeguard the technical cooperation and assistance provided by the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Office), including the possible relocation of the office to an area outside of the Russian Federation. 3. During the 72nd session of the Regional Committee, a report was submitted by the Regional Director on the actions taken to implement resolution EUR/RCSS/R1. This report covered how each of the recommendations were implemented by the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) and specific actions taken by the Regional Director to safeguard the technical work of the NCD Office, taking into account the large NCD burden in the Region. One interim arrangement has been to have all international staff of the NCD Office working outside Russia from the main office in Copenhagen, to ensure the continuity of technical cooperation and assistance provided by WHO. THE WHO EUROPEAN OFFICE FOR THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES 4. The NCD Office is a key mechanism to support all 53 Member States in the Region in their efforts to address the burden of NCDs and to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.4 – to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one third by 2030. In the Region, the eastern European and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries have the highest premature mortality rates from NCDs. With the support of the NCD Office, these countries have shown the greatest reduction in NCD mortality in recent years. It is important to maintain and accelerate this progress towards SDG target 3.4, and protecting the technical work of the NCD Office is crucial for achieving this goal. 5. The NCD Office was established in 2014 and it was fully staffed by 2017. It provides specialized support for 53 Member States of the Region in the prevention and surveillance of NCDs. Its past, current and future work contributes to the WHO objectives to promote healthier populations, ensure that one billion more people enjoy better health and well-being, and ensure universal health coverage. It prioritizes innovation, generating results and building partnerships to reduce the NCD burden in the Region. In 2019, EUR/SC30(2)/3 page 2 the NCD Office was awarded the Director-General’s Award for Excellence (2018–2019). In 2019, in recognition of its success, the Russian Federation agreed to continue supporting the office into 2024. An overview of the NCD Office technical work in 2022 is presented in the annex to this document. 6. The NCD Office is funded predominantly by a grant from the Government of the Russian Federation. In 2014, the Russian Federation provided around US$ 22 million (2014–2018), and in 2019, the donor increased this funding to US$ 26.7 million (2019–2024). The NCD Office currently employs around 30 people (16 on staff contracts), consisting of both international and local staff (including four senior advisers/programme managers) and consultants. Current Russian grant covers, per year: Staff Number of staff Costs (US$) 16 3 326 400 Activities, total costs (US$) 1 100 000 Other expenses (US$) Running costs WHO programme support costs, 13% 300 000 614 432 Total annual costs (US$) 5 340 832 Total cost for five years: US$ 26 704 160 The contribution of the Russian grant versus other international grants to NCD programmes, 1 January–11 November 2022 NCD management Integrated risk factors NCD surveillance Tobacco Alcohol/prisons health Nutrition/physical activity/obesity 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% Activity funds from international grants (%) Activity funds from Russian grant (%) EUR/SC30(2)/3 page 3 OPTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 7. During the 72nd session of the Regional Committee (12–14 September 2022), Member States further requested that the Regional Director consider the following four options and report their impact to the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe in December 2022. These options include: 1. keeping the location of the NCD Office in Moscow; 2. relocating to Copenhagen, Denmark; 3. relocating to another country; and 4. continuing the current interim solution. This document will present the potential consequences of each option, including some potential risks. Option 1. Keeping both international and local staff of the NCD Office in Moscow 8. Established through decision EUR/RC62(2) at the 62nd session of the Regional Committee for Europe, the NCD Office is mainly funded by the Russian Federation through a donor agreement which is US$ 26.7 million for the current five-year period (2019–2024). In case the NCD Office remains in Moscow, the donor (the Russian Federation) will continue to provide this funding as stipulated within the current donor agreement. However, due to current operational challenges, the provision of timely technical support for Member States and the ability to work with international partners will be challenging, putting at risk the implementation of the grant and the achievement of the desired outcomes. Option 2. Relocating the NCD Office to Copenhagen 9. The NCD Office is already an integral part of WHO/Europe within the Division of Country Health Programmes. If staff working in and activities performed by the NCD Office are moved back to Copenhagen, the donor agreement with the Russian Federation would need to be renegotiated and the provision of donor funds might be discontinued in full or in part or may not be sufficient to cover all current operations. WHO/Europe will have to find a solution to fill the financial gap, which is about US$ 5.3 million per year. If this gap is not filled, critical programme areas related to NCDs will be closed, including NCD surveillance and prevention programme areas such as tobacco control, alcohol, illicit drugs and prisons health, nutrition, physical activity and obesity. Addressing the large and unequally distributed burden of NCDs that exists among and within Member States in Europe is a clear priority in the European Programme of Work, 2020– 2025 – “United Action for Better Health in Europe”, and also an essential part of the Sustainable Development Goals (target 3.4). Therefore, any decisions regarding the NCD Office should have minimal impact on WHO/Europe’s capacity to deliver on these important mandates through the provision of policy and technical support to Member States. 10. According to WHO staff rules and regulations, if the NCD Office is closed and staff contracts terminated early, WHO will have to incur various expenses, including paying nine months of staff salaries. Most NCD Office staff members have contracts until 2024. The funds required under the staff rules and regulations are about US$ 1.3 million, and a further US$ 300 000 for one year’s office rent in Moscow, which is already committed. No alternative funds are currently available to meet these requirements, and additional financial resources will be required to meet these commitments. Option 3. Relocating the NCD Office to another country 11. The NCD Office cannot be relocated to another country unless the new host or any other donors provide for funding of the office, including activities and staff costs. To date, no other Member States or donors have officially proposed to WHO/Europe that they can provide the required funds and support to host the NCD Office. If such a proposal is eventually submitted, it will take several years, e.g., up to three years, to establish the NCD Office in this new location. This estimate is based on previous experience with establishing other geographically dispersed offices (GDOs), and takes into consideration the time required to prepare and have a resolution adopted at a future Regional Committee meeting as well as to develop EUR/SC30(2)/3 page 4 other basic documents, sign a host agreement, recruit staff, arrange office space and plan activities. If a decision is taken to move the NCD Office to a new location, it is expected that the current donor (the Russian Federation) will discontinue its funding as stipulated in the current agreement. The programmatic areas outlined above cannot be continued until the new office is operational, and this would probably result in the interruption of technical work for the period of time required to establish the office in a new location. 12. Additionally, if the NCD Office is temporarily closed until it opens in another country, the rules and procedures regarding closure of the office applies in the same way as for Option 2, relocating the NCD Office to Copenhagen. WHO/Europe does not currently have sufficient funds for staff to be continued without the funding from the Russian Federation, or to cover the expenses required to separate the staff from the Organization. Option 4. Continuing the current interim solution 13. Pending the future guidance and decision from the Member States, the Regional Director has made interim arrangements and adopted new operational modalities to ensure that the Member States receive timely NCD policy and technical support and delivery of regional NCD technical products. All of the international staff have been temporarily relocated to the main office in Copenhagen. Technical support is now delivered through subregional approaches (e.g., at the level of the western Balkans, central Asian or European Union countries), or through bilateral direct country support for each Member State. Online events are organized to launch new regional-level products and when regional-level consultations are required. 14. The current interim arrangements have demonstrated a stable continuation of the technical support provided by the NCD Office against the same budget/cost. This arrangement has allowed the NCD Office, i.e., WHO/Europe, to deliver on its NCD-related mandate and safeguard the work of the office. CONCLUSIONS 15. The current interim arrangement would maintain WHO/Europe’s essential work in the area of NCDs and safeguard the technical work and delivery of critical NCD functions to the Member States in the European Region. 16. An immediate permanent closure of the NCD Office in Moscow would have potentially serious implications in reducing the burden of NCDs and achieving SDG target 3.4 by severely scaling down or interrupting the support and assistance of WHO in the area of NCDs to all Member States in Europe. 17. The annex: Overview of NCD Office technical work 2022, shows the vast number of activities and the range of technical support provided by the NCD Office during the last few months. A key contributor to this success is the high-quality technical staff that were recruited to the office, along with the training and experience that those staff have gained over the years. The NCD Office has unusually high levels of staff retention, and this has contributed to the high quality of the NCD Office’s technical work. Providing a stable situation will be crucial to retaining staff. = = = WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION ORGANISATION MONDIALE DE LA SANTÉ WELTGESUNDHEITSORGANISATION Date: 14 November 2022 ВСЕМИРНАЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ ЗДРАВООХРАНЕНИЯ REGIONAL OFFICE FOR EUROPE CIRCULAR LETTER TO ALL MEMBER STATES OF THE BUREAU RÉGIONAL DE L’EUROPE WHO EUROPEAN REGIONi REGIONALBÜRO FÜR EUROPA ЕВРОПЕЙСКОЕ РЕГИОНАЛЬНОЕ БЮРО Head office: UN City, Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark Tel.: +45 45 33 70 00; Fax: +45 45 33 70 01 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.euro.who.int Our reference: C.L. Your reference: Notre référence: 20221114 Votre référence: Unser Zeichen: Ihr Zeichen: См. наш номер: На Ваш номер: Dear Madam or Sir, Thirtieth Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe, second regular session, 1–2 December 2022, Copenhagen, Denmark (hybrid) I am pleased to invite you to attend the second regular session of the Thirtieth Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe (SCRC), which is planned to take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 1–2 December 2022. In accordance with Rule 3 of the Rules of Procedure of the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe, the SCRC has decided to open the second day of its meeting to all Member States in the WHO European Region to consider items of immediate concern, as detailed in the enclosed provisional annotated programme. Only SCRC members are expected to travel to Copenhagen for this session; other Member State participants will be connected through an interactive digital platform, which will allow them to take the floor during the session or send questions or comments through the chat function. The Secretariat will share the connection details in due course. Working languages for the current composition of the SCRC are English, French and Russian. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in these languages. Please find enclosed an update on the implementation of resolution EUR/RCSS/R1. All other meeting documents will be made available through this online channel. I would be grateful if you could confirm your attendance by 21 November at the latest by email to [email protected] I look forward to seeing you again. Yours very truly, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge Regional Director UN City, Marmorvej 51 Tel.: +45 45 33 70 00 Email: [email protected] DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø Fax: +45 45 33 70 01 Website: http://www.euro.who.int Denmark Encls: Provisional programme (annotated) Update on implementation of resolution EUR/RCSS/R1 (and technical annex) i Including regional economic integration organizations. –2– Thirtieth Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe Second session Copenhagen, Denmark, 1–2 December 2022 (hybrid session, partly open to all Member States of the WHO European Region) EUR/SC30(2)/2 14 November 2022 | 220931 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH ADVANCE COPY Draft provisional programme (annotated) Thursday, 1 December 2022 12:00–13:00 Lunch for SCRC members attending in person This session is to be attended only by SCRC members and the WHO Secretariat. 13:00–13:05 Opening of the session by the Chairperson and the Regional Director 13:05–13:10 Adoption of the provisional agenda and provisional annotated programme 13:10–14:00 Follow-up on the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC72) and proposed programme of work for the Thirtieth SCRC • Evaluation and review of actions by the SCRC and the Secretariat • Consideration of the subgroups of the Thirtieth SCRC: composition, proposed terms of reference and programme of work 14:00-15:00 Draft provisional agenda and provisional programme of RC73 • Update on arrangements to host RC73 in Astana, Kazakhstan and related events • Initial discussion on the proposed RC73 provisional agenda and provisional programme • Proposed briefings and side events 15:00–15:30 Healthy break (including group photo) 15:30–16:30 Draft provisional agenda and provisional programme of RC73 (cont.) 16:30 Conclusions and closure of the first day 18:30–20:00 Reception dinner hosted by the Regional Director (for SCRC members present in Copenhagen) EUR/SC30(2)/2 page 2 Friday, 2 December 2022 Open session This session is open to all Member States in the WHO European Region until 15:00. 09:00–09:05 Opening of the session by the Chairperson 09:05–10:00 Activity report by the WHO Regional Director for Europe The activity report will cover the period since the first regular session of the Thirtieth SCRC. The Regional Director will also provide an update on measures to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment. 10:00–10:20 Update on the health emergency response in the WHO European Region The Regional Emergency Director will provide an update on the ongoing health emergencies in the WHO European Region, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the multicountry monkeypox outbreak and the health emergency in Ukraine, and on the response by WHO. 10:20–11:00 Q&A and discussion 11:00–11:30 Healthy break 11:30–12:30 Implementation of resolution EUR/RCSS/R1 Following the request by RC72, the Regional Director will provide an update on measures taken to implement provisions of resolution EUR/RCSS/R1, including details of the legal, financial and human resource implications of moving the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases from Moscow, as well as an estimated timeline and potential sources of additional funding. Following the update by the Regional Director, Member States will be invited to share their reflections. 12:30–13:30 Lunch break 13:30–14:30 Programme budget 2024–2025: priority setting Regional presentation of the draft consolidated regional priorities and input for the draft Programme budget 2024–2025 and the Regional Plan for Implementation (RPI). 14:30–15:00 Global governing bodies meetings and regional implications Members will be briefed about the regional outcomes of the recent global governing bodies meetings (e.g. the informal Executive Board retreat) and the plans for the upcoming meetings (Programme Budget and Administration Committee, Executive Board) to discuss any regional implications or considerations. 15:00–15:30 Healthy break This late afternoon session is to be attended only by SCRC members and the WHO Secretariat. 15:30–16:30 Membership of WHO governing bodies and committees The SCRC will be invited to assess the existing process for elections and nominations, which has been implemented on a trial basis since November 2021, and to decide on the assessment method to be utilized during the nomination year 2023. EUR/SC30(2)/2 page 3 Given the anticipated report on governance reform and recent developments in the work of the regional and global governing bodies, the SCRC will be invited to consider any necessary revisions of the existing RC and SCRC Rules of Procedure. The SCRC will be updated on the vacant seats on the governing bodies and committees (the Executive Board, SCRC, the Standing Committee on Health Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response and the Regional Evaluation Group). In addition, the SCRC will be updated on the elective posts that the European Region is expected to fill in 2023. 16:30 Other matters; closure of the session = = = Saatja: EURO Governance <[email protected]> Saadetud: 15.11.2022 13:16 Adressaat: EURO Governance <[email protected]> Koopia: EURO Governance <[email protected]> Teema: WHO/Europe Invitation to the Second session of the 30th SCRC for Europe Dear Sir, Dear Madam, Please find attached correspondence sent from the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe. Sincerely yours, Regional Governance and Languages Team Regional Governance and Languages Unit Regional Directors DivisionWHO Regional Office for Europe Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen , DenmarkT: &#43;45 45 33 68 51 | Annex. Overview of NCD Office technical work 2022 Focus on 2022: key outputs/achievements so far NCDs and Nutrition/Obesity Obesity/Childhood obesity management policy dialogues for Western Balkans and Central Asia In May and June respectively, the NCD Office accumulated interest of key stakeholders and health professionals starting Policy dialogues to fight obesity in Western Balkans and Central Asia. The Western Balkans policy dialogue was launched in Skopje, North Macedonia, at a high-level event attended by Elizabeta Gjorgievska, First Lady of North Macedonia, and Bekim Sali, Minister of Health of the country. Subregional meeting on the Roadmap for Health and Well-being in the Western Balkans (WBRM) continued the discussion with attendees from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia. The central Asian policy dialogue began in Kyrgyzstan with the presentation of a new report based on the latest WHO Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) data gathered in the country. In addition, the NCD Office organised a childhood obesity treatment training course for further capacity building in the subregion. Kyrgyzstan (host), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan attended the course. Participants in the meetings focused on obesity prevention over the life course, the role of the environment (including the digital environment) in contributing to the obesity epidemic, the relationships between obesity and disease (including cancer and covid-19), obesity management, “best-buy” actions, and policy recommendations. The objectives of the meetings are as follows: 1.To present the current situation with obesity as public health problem in Western Balkans and Central Asia 2.To present the "best buys" and other recommended interventions for the prevention and control of obesity 3.To identify priority areas of intervention and catalyze next steps for informing action to tackle obesity in the Western Balkans and Central Asia The policy dialogues convened key stakeholders from countries and experts from WHO, to highlight existing examples and future opportunities to promote health through reducing of obesity prevalence. Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes: report and policy brief Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) can help countries fight noncommunicable diseases and make people healthier – but this measure can be more effective if taxes are developed in collaboration between health and finance authorities. The new WHO report “Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in the WHO European Region” published by the NCD Office in March examined the experience of the 10 Member States who were first in the Region to introduce the measure. To further assist Member States in implementing best practices in this context, the NCD Office published a policy brief on taxing sugar-sweetened beverages in June. Salt reduction The NCD Office pushed forward salt reduction initiatives placing WHO/Europe on course to achieve 30% reduction (evaluation of individual salt intake; analysis of dietary intake data and calculating expected salt reduction in food stuffs to achieve WHO target, food reformulation and policy dialogues at National level). Among these projects in 2022 are: • Training videos to support implementation of 24-h salt intake studies published on WHO website • Salt reduction communication campaign in Central Asia: qualitative research conducted in urban and rural areas of Kazakhstan to inform the design of a campaign. Regulation of digital marketing of unhealthy products to children The NCD Office offered a set of methods and tools to Member States that enable them to better regulate digital marketing of unhealthy products. Below is the list of activities in this context in the year 2022: • Implementation of monitoring-related CLICK tool (“I – investigate exposure) to collect data on paid for advertisements that are seen by children when using their online devices. • Second monitoring-related step of the CLICK framework (C - Capture on screen) is now being piloted in 5 MSs to see children’s exposure to HFSS foods marketing as well as young and pregnant women’s exposure to BMS marketing. • As part of the CLICK monitoring framework, a phone application was developed to monitor all kinds of marketing exposure on children’s phones, through screen capture technology. To simplify the analysis and assessment of the data collected, supporting Member-States, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool was developed. • Both, the application and the AI tool can be accessed by Member States through a website, developed by the NCD Office, which also contains all relevant protocols, guidance documents and templates. • Both monitoring-related CLICK studies results are presented and shared among all countries implementing CLICK during the CLICK Steering Committee, the next one is planned in December 2022. The main goal of such meetings is to learn from each other and share experiences. • The importance for countries to map the digital media ecosystem has been highlighted by the NCD Office since the first CLICK report was published in 2019. This report informed about the marketing mechanisms and main stakeholders. A new report, “Understanding the digital media ecosystem - How the evolution of the digital marketing ecosystem impacts food advertising”, was produced and launched on June 2022, presenting what has changed over the years and the consequences for food digital marketing of these ongoing changes. To support with the implementation of the monitoring tool, legal support and guidance is requested from Member States. Therefore, several documents are currently in development: o A report offering technical advice on regulating unhealthy food marketing informing about food marketing practices in the WHO European Region, about designing regulatory frameworks, monitoring, enforcement and evaluation as well as governance structures. o A mapping approach will present the current state of play, combine and compare how dangers for children on the internet are currently restricted to protect children.  A digital health manifesto should give clear guidance on what is needed from governments as well as social media platforms to protect children online. o A report on age verification tools and approaches will be published by the end of the year offering Member States an overview of currently available systems. o Another short report will reflect on the upcoming metaverse. Describing the concept and possible related challenges. • Further, more national capacity building workshops and events are planned for the end of the year for example in Montenegro. • TV marketing studies are implemented in 6 CIS countries, often as a first step evaluating the marketing exposure while children watch TV. • To inform CIS countries’ public health experts on unhealthy foods marketing problem, the NCD office presented during a public health conference, organized by the National Medical Research Center for Therapy and Preventive Medicine of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation. The presentation was focused on current marketing related legislations within the WHO European Region and highlighted the importance of strict regulations and monitoring systems to objectively monitor the marketing exposure to children and protect children from unhealthy food marketing. • The EU Parliament invited the WHO NCD Office to reflect on a session on digital marketing, on 28 June 2022 on an event focused on how to protect children from harmful food marketing. • Country specific capacity building events have been organized and executed by the NCD Office. A two days (digital) marketing workshop was organized in Baku, Azerbaijan, presenting evidence on the impact of marketing to children, the effectiveness of different types of regulations and monitoring strategies. A workshop was held on the methodology of TV marketing, lead by experienced Russian experts. • Capacity building – Sub-regional workshop in collaboration with Eurasian Economic Commission in Armenia is planned for November. The objective of the workshop is to gather selected stakeholders from Eurasian Economic Commission and experts from its Member States to share the latest knowledge in the fields of marketing of unhealthy products and front of pack labelling (FOPL), including effects of marketing on children and adolescence, existing policies, and approaches to tackle marketing of unhealthy products. • To share updates, learn from previous experiences and connect the Region Member-States, the NCD Office jointly organized with Portugal the WHO European action network on reducing marketing pressure on children. Due to COVID-19 regulations, the meeting was hosted online on the 27th of June 2022. • In the UK, the primary focus of NCD Office work is analysing collected data and extracting meaningful statistics. One area of focus is studying catchment areas of chain restaurants and their delivery cost. For that, the NCD Office is currently collaborating with the Newcastle City council in the UK to use our data to identify Ghost restaurants and support planning permission for a new chain restaurant. From April, UK large restaurant chains must show nutrient information on all digital platforms. As a result of this, the NCD Office was able to collect nutrition information for UK. Currently, we are working on a publication about this legislation and stats. • Due to the successful pilot studies with the CLICK monitoring tool in several countries, regarding children’s exposure to digital marketing of unhealthy products, the NCD Office is expanding the project to the market of breastmilk-substitutes (BMS) products. Currently, the BMS Marketing study is being implemented in four countries of the Region. The study applies one of the steps of the CLICK Framework to assess the exposure of pregnant women and mothers to paid-for digital marketing of BMS. Nutrient Profile Model (NPM) An essential tool, needed for restricting marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks is a Nutrient Profile Model (NPM), which categorises and classifies foods and non-alcoholic beverages as permitted and not permitted to be marketed to children, according to their nutritional composition. WHO Europe developed a NPM for such purpose in 2015. Currently this model is updated, according to changes in the food environment and following the requests and needs from Member-States. The updated model was tested, in collaboration with the European Union Best-ReMaP Joint Action, in 13 countries of the European Region. It should be launched in the end of 2022. Since the draft NPM for commercially available complementary foods was published in 2019, the NCD Office has continued working on an updated version, collecting feedback from Member-States and developing an online tool to make the model more accessible. The model will be published by the end of 2022. Workshop on reducing marketing pressure on children and front-of-pack labelling (FOPL) – 28-29 September, Uzbekistan An important Presidential decree of Uzbekistan was issued to implement front of pack labels (FOPL) on food items to promote healthy nutrition and tackle obesity. WHO European Office for Prevention and Control of NCDs organized a workshop on 28 and 29 September in Tashkent with the WHO Country office, Uzbekistan and Ministry of Health to support implementation of this new policy. The two day workshop which was attended by international experts shared new evidence and best practice examples from other countries in the region and beyond. The workshop also focused on another important WHO recommendation, to restrict marketing of unhealthy products to children and took initial steps to set up a new study in Uzbekistan to collect relevant data. WHO Regional Office for Europe stands ready to support Member States to tackle childhood obesity which has an unbearable cost on our healthy systems, economy and welling of the society. Series of stakeholders dialogues on childhood obesity – 3-5 October, Slovenia The dialogues reflect the STOP (Science and Technology in childhood Obesity Policy) project aimed to address the determinants of childhood obesity and provide policy tools to help address childhood obesity comprehensively. A key pillar of the project is focused on engaging and understanding the roles of stakeholders in a systematic manner. As part of these events, on 4 October a new WHO manual "How together we can make the world’s most healthy and sustainable public food procurement" was launched. Russian Federation country support The NCD Office provides technical support to Member States on monitoring of the nutritional composition of food products in the Russian Federation and analysis of their labelling. • An assessment was conducted to analyse the content of potassium, sodium (food salt) and TFA in food products in the trade network of Moscow, as well as to examine information on labels of food products. The NCD Office is planning to develop a report based on the findings. • Front of pack labelling: WHO European Regional office continue to support the member states to be able to design, adapt and apply front of pack labelling • The NCD Office is providing technical support to UZB in adapting and implementing of the Nutrition Score system. NCD Surveillance WHO European Region is the most advanced WHO region in terms of NCD surveillance progress indicators and data availability for NCDs in the context of SDG 3 and other related goals (interactive platform for monitoring NCD targets, COSI implemented in 90% of countries for all rounds, STEPs scaled up and using innovative approaches) • Salt intake study conducted in Turkey 2022 to estimate population salt intake through a 24- hour urinary sodium excretion survey in Ankara. These data will be important to estimate the true population salt intake and advocate for the inclusion of 24-h salt intake measurement in a nationally-representative study. Data collection was completed in July 2022. • FEEDcities study conducted in Georgia to estimate nutrition content of commonly consumed street foods in Tbilisi. Data collection was completed in June 2022 and analyses of results is ongoing with a report to be published in early 2023. • FEEDcities study implementation planned Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan in Q4 2022. The WHO Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) The NCD Office provides continuous support to all COSI countries for Round 6 data collection; list of countries intending to collect/have collected data: Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan (sub-national only), Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. Launch of COSI report on round 5 data collection and launch of Tajikistan COSI report on 4th and 5th data collection rounds are planned in November. At the same time the NCD Office will organize COSI seminars open for participation for all Member States. STEPS workshop - 27-30 September, Kazakhstan Benefits of gathering and using health data on NCD risk factors became the main topic of the workshop that started in Kazakhstan. It is the first event in line with the WHO Roadmap for Health and Well-being in Central Asia 2022-2025 that steps up to major health challenges in five countries of the WHO European Region. NCD Country Capacity Survey Most up to date information on national capacities, polices and response has been collected from all Member States through the NCD Country Capacity Survey. NCD Office coordinated collection and validated data from Member States in the WHO European Region and achieved for the third consecutive time 100% response rate. Those data are used to monitor commitments made by the Heads of States and Governments at the UN High Level meeting on NCDs. Country profiles have been published NCD risk factors surveys Technical assistance for the implementation of STEPS surveys has been provided to: 15+ countries Albania, Belarus, Republic of Moldova and Uzbekistan finalized the national STEPS reports with the technical assistance of NCD Office. Report launches with comprehensive national policy dialogues on NCDs are planned as a follow up acton in 2021 or ealry 2022. Individualized and tailored technical assistance for planning and implementaton of STESP surveys has been provided to Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan plannig Breastfeeding Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative training course The NCD Office hosted a Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative train-the-trainer style course-2022. It is designed to help ensure all health workers who care for women and children are well equipped to play a key role in establishing and sustaining breastfeeding during the postnatal period and beyond, and can be used as part of the pre-service education of health workers. The training also provides a platform that enables countries to share their experience and ask questions to selected experts. • Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative training was hosted online in Russian between the 20th of June to the 5th of July. 140 trainers from 8 CIS countries were present and plan to disseminate course information in their respective countries in the coming months. Trainers were from several health institutes across the countries. • 11 Experts presented, including specialists from Russian Federation • Countries presented national plans of action on promoting BFHI / further training • All materials and recordings are available on online platform for participants to access at anytime • For the future, the NCD Office plans to host the next course in English between the 28th of November to the 9th of December. This time it will be offered to all countries except CIS countries in the WHO EURO region. Breastfeeding Webinar Series The NCD Office Breastfeeding Webinar Series-2022 focuses on contemporary public health, clinical and biophysiological aspects of breastfeeding, human milk and lactation. It is designed to provide information to Member States to support their evidence-based advocacy as well as inform policy design and program implementation. The webinars also provide a platform that enable countries to share their experience and ask questions to selected experts. • So far in 2022, we have hosted 3 webinars • Number of participants for these webinars ranges from 70-300. • Webinars are hosted in English with simultaneous Russian Translation • We often receive very positive feedback about these webinars and countries have valuable discussions through which we are able to identify topics for future webinars • The NCD Office is currently in the stages of planning the next 3 webinars which will take place before the end of the year Physical Activity Health-promoting sports clubs national audit tool In April, the NCD Office published a national audit tool for health-promoting sports clubs provides a protocol and method for collating the available national policies and strategies for supporting health promotion in sports clubs. This document provides an introduction and users’ guide for the audit tool and the tool itself. The assessment will provide a comprehensive overview of national health promotion policies and strategies related to sports clubs in your country, which may indicate gaps in national health promotion and sport strategies and indicate areas to be developed. Innovative approaches to Physical Activity promotion Innovative approaches to Physical Activity promotion are made available to member states in the region, including how we design cities, measure physical activity levels and estimate the socioeconomic costs of physical inactivity and sedentary behaviours: • WHO/Europe, in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, has analysed the socioeconomic costs of physical inactivity in the 27 EU Member States, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Turkey. The findings of these analyses will be published in October 2022 to provide important information to help Member States better define and prioritize policies to counteract the burden of physical inactivity across the life course. • The project “Mapping and describing Workplace Physical Activity interventions, practices, programs and protocols for small-to-medium-sized enterprises: A scoping review of grey literature” is a joint collaboration between HEPA Europe Network’s Working Group (WG) Worksite HEPA Promotion members and the NCD Office. The idea originated in the HEPA Europe Network Conferences in Odense 2019. A preliminary report has been prepared to summarise the background of the project to all participating experts and to provide data from the actions that have carried out. These data are to be discussed by participating experts in all stages to select good workplace physical activity interventions for small-to- medium sized enterprises in the European region of WHO and develop a practical toolkit for Member States. • Urban design for Health: report of a symposium on the use of urban design to promote physical activity and healthy diets in cities published September 1st 2022. • EU Physical Activity Focal Points Network meeting 30 May 2022: provided information about potential mechanisms to support the monitoring and promotion of HEPA policies in the EU. Included presentations of results from international collaborations focused on strengthening the monitoring of physical activity across the sport and fitness sector, results from research from the health and sport policy sector, and experiences of WHO country capacity building for implementation of national multisectoral policy dialogues to promote physical activity. • In the framework of WHO’s collaboration with the European Commission on its HealthyLifestyles4All initiative, a 3-day virtual workshop was held on 21-23 March, with the aims of (1) sharing experiences and developing recommendations for what to consider when planning an action-initiating policy dialogue; and (2) identifying how WHO, donors and other stakeholders can best support Member States in planning, delivering and following up a policy dialogue. The learning emerging from the workshop will inform the development of a toolkit on designing future policy dialogues on a more effective way. Participants included WHO staff, consultants, and Member State and stakeholder representatives. The workshop  followed participatory methods in order to role model an open and collaborative approach to co-creating solutions in complex systems. The approach will be piloted tested in Sweden and Netherlands in 2022. • In 2022 the NCD Office recorded a set of video presentations and lectures as part of online training materials on childhood obesity management. 11th HEPA Europe Conference in Nice This year WHO/Europe and the HEPA Europe Network, in collaboration with the University of Côte d'Azur, hosted the 11th HEPA Europe Conference in Nice, France from 31st August - 2nd September 2022. The aim of the conference was to provide a platform for public officials, practitioners, policy makers, leading researchers, and early researchers to share and exchange scientific knowledge, innovative research ideas and practical country experiences. The conference topic was an ‘ecosystem approach to health-enhancing physical activity promotion’ which focused discussions on the complexity of interactions between the individual, systemic and environmental factors that influence population physical activity levels. Another highlight was the launch of the Urban design for health report that happened at the same HEPA Europe Conference. Special supplement of full-text papers and abstract supplement published in European Journal of Public Health (September 2022): 2022 HEPA Europe Conference: ‘an ecosystem approach to health-enhancing physical activity promotion’ to follow. Cross-cutting area: building capacity in health taxes at regional and national levels The Expansion of the WHO database on Alcohol and Sugar Sweetened Beverage Prices and tax Currently, the WHO is developing a new global database for alcohol, tobacco and SSB tax and price data and all WHO Member States are asked to nominate focal points from Ministries of Health and Finance to respond to the survey. As part of this, the NCD Office in collaboration with the WHO HQ Fiscal Policy for Health unit, is carrying out the first ever survey on alcohol and SSB taxes and prices in the WHO European Region as the tobacco data are already being routinely collected as part of another routine exercise. The NCD Office expanded the global survey by adding variables to meet the data demands and specificities of Member States of the Who European Region and has built on online platform to provide a user-friendly and an efficient tool to collect data, Moreover, the Office has used the data collection exercise was used as an opportunity to promote intersectoral dialogue between different Ministries. An online workshop for Member States was organized to facilitate completion of the survey and to promote taxes on alcohol, tobacco and SSB, involving Members of the NCD Advisory Council and technical leads of the signature initiative on digital health and the signature initiative on alcohol tax. The recording of the workshop was then made available to Member States to facilitate survey completion and an interactive database on alcohol, tobacco and SSBs will be subsequently developed. Workshops on health taxes in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan In May, following a specific request of the country, the NCD Office has organised a high-level capacity building workshop on health taxes for government officials in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The workshop was organized jointly with the WHO Country Office and the HQ Fiscal Policies for Health Unit and has involved different stakeholders from the Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Economy and Commerce, Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Service, Mandatory Health Insurance Fund, Health Organization institutes as well as experts from academia and civil society. The workshop was also carried out as as part of the NCD Advisory Council signature initiative on alcohol taxes, involving the members of the working group. As a concrete outcome of the workshop, an intersectoral working group on health taxes was formed with the aim to further develop and analytical paper on the health and economic gains of health taxes in Kyrgyzstan as well as a specific implementation roadmap for the next years. In June 2022, the Office has conducted a high-level workshop on SSB taxes in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as a specific follow-up of a previous workshop on health taxes. Alcohol use Developing the European Framework for Action on Alcohol, 2022-2025 In March, the NCD Office organised a series of online consultations with Member States representatives and civil society organization on the draft of the European Framework for Action on Alcohol. The framework lays out six key priority areas where Member States and WHO can take action to reduce alcohol consumption and harms at subnational, national and regional levels. at subnational, national and regional levels. The framework will be submitted to the WHO Regional Committee for Europe at its 72nd session in September 2022, along with a developed monitoring framework and a detailed background document, which summarize the evidence for the framework. The framework draft has received very positive feedback from the twenty-ninth Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe in May 2022. Launch of the NCD Advisory Council signature initiative on alcohol tax In February 2022, the WHO Regional Director for Europe’s Advisory Council on Innovation and Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Advisory Council) with the support of the NCD Office proposed a new signature initiative on alcohol taxation for countries to consider in their fiscal policies. The official launch of the alcohol taxation signature initiative and the first results of the working group took place as part of the “Alcohol taxes to save lives: a best practice symposium for the WHO European Region” in Vilnius, which was organized by the NCD Office in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Lithuania and the WHO Country Office in Lithuania. The launch and symposium were also linked to the international conference on alcohol policies in the Baltic States and Poland, which is a project carried out in collaboration with the NCD Office and with funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. During the launch of the signature initiative, researchers from the Baltic States and Poland presented key findings from their project on how alcohol has shaped life expectancy trends in the respective countries and Members of the NCD Council have presented result of a study on alcohol taxation and its potential to save lives, which was published in the Lancet Regional Health Europe on the same day. According to a study, if countries of the WHO European Region were to introduce a minimum level of 15% tax on the retail price per unit of alcohol, regardless of the type of alcoholic beverage, it would save 133 000 lives each year. These results were then discussed in a high-level panel discussion by all three Ministers of Health of the Baltic States and representatives of the Ministries of Finance, the European Commission and the OECD. A policy brief and a news item were published to further disseminate results. Building capacity for screening and brief interventions for alcohol in the WHO European Region and establishing a network of Russian-speaking experts The NCD Office is creating an informal network of experts to build capacity in screening and brief interventions for alcohol in the WHO European Region, with a special focus on Russian-speaking populations. International networks of researchers, policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders, such as the International Network in Brief Interventions for Alcohol & Other Drugs (INEBRIA) network, have existed for many years and play an important role in developing and disseminating evidence in the area of screening and brief interventions. However, no such network existed so far for professionals working in the Russian language and the NCD Office has replied to this need, which was identified also as part of the regular meeting of the CIS Alcohol Policy Network, which was also created by the NCD Office. In May 2022 the second meeting of the expert network was carried out in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and online, followed by a training of primary health care workers in Bishkek. In July 2022 a third expert meeting was organized in Moscow and online, where experts have discussed specific brief intervention modules that were developed in Russian language and their potential use in different countries. SAFER Civil Society meeting and Young people for a SAFER WHO European Region, Oslo, Norway In June the NCD Office hosted two separate meetings for civil society organizations and youth organizations engaged with reducing alcohol consumption and harm, bringing together participants from Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Montenegro, Norway, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey and the Unite. As part of meaningful engagement with youth and civil society, participants shared perspectives on the WHO-led SAFER initiative discussed implementation challenges, including overcoming industry opposition. Participants also discussed how to build public support for effective alcohol policies and developed guidance for how the knowledge and experience of young people can be used to promote effective alcohol policies for the whole population. The voices of young people recorded at this event will be presented to Member States at the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC72), as part of the RC72 exhibition are that will be dedicated to alcohol and cancer awareness. Launch of the minimum pricing report for alcohol In June, the NCD Office launched its new technical report “No place for cheap alcohol. The potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives”. The report provides a first-ever review of minimum pricing policies on alcohol at the global level and summarizes the most recent evidence on their impact for countries to consider as well as practical implementation considerations, including legal issues. The First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, who is a SAFER Ambassador for the WHO European Region, has provided the foreword for the report. The communications campaign linked to the report launch has included a media briefing with leading journalists, particularly from the UK. The launch led to a considerable media coverage of the report with over 20 media hits in English, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. Media outlets featuring the report included The Telegraph, The Independent, Handelsblatt, the Irish Examiner, Komsomolskaya Pravda and the BMJ. Interregional webinars on alcohol with the Pan American Health Organization In March and May2022 the NCD Office hosted two webinars in close collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization and Vital Strategies as part of a joint EURO/PAHO interregional webinar series. The webinar series explores prominent themes in the WHO European Region and in the Region of Americas as the two Regions with the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the world. The March webinar was dedicated to the topic of women and alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic and was organized as part of the activities for the International Women's Day. The May webinar discussed how public health and alcohol policy and specifically the WHO- led SAFER initiative can be safeguarded from vested interests. The next webinar is planned for September to mark the International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Day and will involve perspectives from Russian experts and community leaders. Country support High-level Alcohol Policy Workshop for the Members of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova In July, the NCD Office has organized, in collaboration with the WHO Country Office in Moldova and the Behavioural and Cultural Insights Unit as well as the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and the Ministry of Health, a high-level alcohol policy workshop for the Members of the Parliament of Moldova. The workshop has brought stakeholders from different governmental agencies, like the Ministry of Health, Finance, Agriculture, Youth and Sports and representatives of technical institutes together in a dialogue on the most effective and cost-effective policies to reduce alcohol consumption and harms in Moldova. The workshop elements included essential guidance from behavioural and cultural insights on alcohol policy development, implementation and monitoring and created a platform to share international experience and best practices. Members of the working group of the NCD Council Signature Initiative on alcohol taxation contributed to the organization and development of the workshop and provided technical inputs to the programme and ensured further technical support to the country. Implementing a new screening tool for alcohol use disorders in the Russian Federation (RUS- AUDIT) and working with Russian experts The NCD Office continues its support to the improvement of screening and brief intervention practices for NCD risk factors in the Russian Federation and works closely with the WHO Country Office to support the implementation of the newly validated screening tool for alcohol use disorders in primary healthcare. Together with Russian institutions, the Office is developing an implementation study of the RUS-AUDIT screening tool in current preventive screening practices (i.e. professional preventive examinations as well as dispanserization screenings), which consists of several components utilizing quantitative and qualitative research methods. Moreover, the NCD Office is developing a regional guide on brief intervention modules to address alcohol is a risk factor in primary care in Russian language for different countries, in close collaboration and exchange with Russian experts. Specific materials addressing the very stigmatized topic of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is also being prepared in collaboration with Russian experts. In February, the NCD Office has also organized an online meeting of Russian experts on alcohol pricing policies. The expert group is expected to support the development of the evidence base for the effectiveness of alcohol taxation and pricing policies and advance the implementation of the regional SAFER initiative. Training health workers in using a new validated screening tool for alcohol in Kyrgyzstan and providing technical support for establishing national guidelines on alcohol use disorder treatment In May, the NCD Office has organized a training of the trainer session with primary healthcare workers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where the participants were trained in delivering screening and brief intervention sessions with the newly validated RUS-AUDIT screening test in Russian language. The training was organized in close collaboration with the WHO Country Office in the Russian Federation and Russian experts. Tobacco use In 2022, the NCD Office raised awareness of the environmental impact of tobacco’s life cycle • Tobacco and environment infographic https://www.who.int/europe/multi- media/item/tobacco-and-environment-infographic • Tobacco’s threat to environment factsheet • Tobacco and environment, episode 1, 2 and 3 of the ‘The how of WHO – Russian-language podcast’ • ‘The role of the public in changing norms: smoke-free beaches in Spain’ – country story for WNTD https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/30-05-2022-the-role-of-the-public-in- changing-norms--smoke-free-beaches-in-spain • WHO/Europe Instagram campaign launched (UN city intranet https://myintra.uncity.dk/ & WHO/Europe intranet) • ‘EU ban on microplastics stubs out cigarette butt pollution’ TOP story for corporate site https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/30-05-2022-eu-ban-on-microplastics-stubs-out- cigarette-butt-pollution • The conference “Big Tobacco's Greenwashing - a threat for tobacco control in the EU", organized by the ACT - Alliance Contre le Tabac, the ENSP - European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention and WHO/EURO on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day took place in Brussels on 24 May. • Participation in the World No Tobacco Day event at the Bornholm Folkemodet meeting, Denmark, 15-19 June 2022 Country support The NCD Office is providing support and sharing experience on tobacco cessation approaches at national and regional level • Joint WHO and EU technical workshop “Novel and Emerging Nicotine and Tobacco Products. Challenges, Achievements and Regulatory Needs of European Union Countries”, Copenhagen, Denmark on 23-23 June 2022 • Sharing tobacco cessation approaches and existing digital tools at the “Digital Health Solutions for NCDs in emergencies” meeting in Istanbul May 25-26. • Joint FCTC Secretariat and WHO (HQ, EURO, and CO) high level mission in Kazakhstan on tobacco control (23-24 May 2022). Participation in high-level meetings, press conference and media interview. • Continuous support is provided to countries to strengthen tobacco control legislation (UKR, MDA, KAZ, KGZ, ARM, GEO, SRB), to develop comprehensive tobacco control programmes (TKM), to strengthen capacities of the enforcement agencies (UKR), and to improve tobacco cessation services (MNE, POL, KAZ). Reports and surveys NCD Office’s ongoing work on WHO tobacco reports and surveys is as follows: • Working with 53 countries of WHO/Europe on data collection for the biennial WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2023 WHO report (GTCR) • Working with eight countries of WHO/Europe on preparation and implementation of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey  • Preparation for publication of the Kazakhstan GATS 2019 Country Report • Fundraising for GATS survey in Georgia Prisons and health HIPEDS database WHO leadership in the area of Prison Health is widely recognized and UN establishes the WHO Health in Prisons European Database (HIPEDS), as the main hub for health-related data on incarceration. In 2021, the NCD Office published “The WHO Prison Health Framework: a framework for assessment of prison health system performance”, launched during the Regional Committee, which guided the new iteration of HIPEDS database. In 2022, the NCD Office presented at the ICRC global conference on prison health and in other events, the main findings of HIPEDS 2021. “Addressing the noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden in prisons in the WHO European Region” report The NCD Office produced also visible and very relevant outputs in the area of NCD prevention and management, namely “Addressing the noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden in prisons in the WHO European Region: interventions and policy options”. The NCD Office published this report in February 2022. The aim of this brief is to shed light on the scale of the noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden in prisons and the unique challenges they present for individuals and society both during and following incarceration. The brief also highlights best practices, interventions and policies to address NCDs and their risk factors in the prison context, while also noting special considerations for their implementation in specific contexts and settings. “Cancer and cardiovascular health inequities in prison settings: a rapid literature review” This report published in July describes a rapid review to assess inequities in cancer and cardiovascular disease care in prisons. Most of the evidence identified focused on cancer, with cervical cancer the most commonly studied disease. The evidence showed lower cancer screening rates in prison populations than in non-prison populations. Train-the-trainers course for prison health workers on NCD management: In May 2022, the NCD office launched a professional development course for prison health workers, jointly developed with Yale School of Medicine. The course aimed to update participants on the latest NCD evidence and discuss implementation success factors in detention settings, by including a theoretical part and a practical and longitudinal component to equip participants with the tools needed and close monitoring to enable scaling up the training in participant Member States. NCD inequities factsheets To further disseminate WHO message on the need to reduce health inequities in prisons, the NCD Office in 2022 produced 5 separate factsheets focused on the following topics: • Cancer • Noncommunicable respiratory diseases • Obesity • Cardiovascular diseases • Mental health issues Another NCD Office factsheet produced in 2022 raised awareness of tobacco use in detention settings. Emergencies Nutrition/health information technical products for Ukraine response The NCD Office was providing technical input for nutrition/health information documents being disseminated both within Ukraine as well as in neighbouring countries involved in the refugee response: • Guidance documents on Infant and Young Child Feeding practices • Handbook for refugees – contributed to nutrition and food safety section • Presentation on nutrition and health in emergencies for health care workers in countries involved in refugee response • Training material for Mother Baby Spaces (MBS) • Advocating for regulation of BMS during emergency response As part of the response, the NCD Office team contributed to the following meetings: • Ukraine Nutrition Cluster Meeting • Nutrition Cluster + UN Agencies meeting • IFE Core group Programmatic Working Group • IFE Core Group Ukraine Advocacy and Communications Working Group • Moldova country office meetings on refugee response Physical activity and sports for the promotion of health and the integration of refugees in Poland Over 50% of all refugees from Ukraine are now in Poland. Many of these individuals are at risk of developing NCD or are already living with NCDs, psychological distress and other specific health needs. To address the situation, the NCD Office in collaboration with the WHO Country Office in Poland is supporting the Ministry of Sports and Tourism to implement school sports club activities in cities and townships with high Ukrainian refugee populations. The project involves providing physical activity opportunities for around 1000 small groups of Ukrainian and Polish children, developing educational and promotional materials in Ukrainian and Polish languages to facilitate participation, implementing awareness raising campaigns, identifying barriers to access opportunities to participate in physical activity and sports and advocate for the importance of stakeholders to create enabling environments for the promotion of physical activity to support health of children. It will also provide insights to guide support for promoting physical activity and sports participation of Ukrainian children and their families in Poland and neighbouring countries to protect their health during emergency situations and promote integration in society. Moldova country support The NCD Office has actively supported the Moldova Country Office with the following activities to work on better nutrition and breastfeeding practices: • Rapid nutrition assessment (field visit) with UNICEF • Developed questionnaire to get update on nutritional status • Helping identify needs and gaps at field level and feedback to technical working groups • Monitoring and evaluation of nutrition related activities NCDs in emergencies expert meeting in Istanbul On the 25th and 26th of May 2022, the WHO Country Office of Turkey, the WHO European Center on Preparedness for Humanitarian and Health Emergencies and the WHO European Office for Prevention and Control of NCDs convened a two-day workshop of experts working in the following areas: emergency preparedness for enhanced security, the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and digital health. The main objectives of the event were to summarise the NCD risk factors and priority areas for capacity building among primary health care workers and improved care in emergencies – and to identify next steps, evidence gaps and future opportunities for collaboration between the WHO NCD Office (Moscow), the GDO (Istanbul) and the country office of Turkey, with a special focus on using digital tools to integrate NCD risk factors into care as part of emergency preparedness. Capacity building on NCDs Implementation research workshop for Central Asian countries In May 2021, with the support from the experts from the Johns Hopkins University, NCD Office launched the implementation research project on brief interventions for NCD risk factors in primary healthcare in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, and on school nutrition programmes in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In April 2022, representatives of participating Member States got together to discuss the first round of the work done and plan the next steps for 2022-2023. To further build capacity on implementation research in the Region, in June 2022, NCD Office held a workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, for representatives from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, where they could learn about implementation research tools and how can they be tailored for countries’ needs. WHO/Europe training course on noncommunicable diseases: surveillance, implementation and evaluation The training course on NCDs produced by the NCD Office and jointly developed by WHO collaborating centres and partner organizations became a success in 2021 – so the project continued into 2022 with a new round of training. The course is developed for early and mid-career professionals working in the field of NCDs, including researchers, policy makers and postgraduate students. The selected participants of this course gain important knowledge and develop skills to build capacity among stakeholders to achieve NCD-related global targets. In addition to acquiring fundamental knowledge and tools necessary to successfully work in the area of public health and NCDs, the online course offers the opportunity to connect with colleagues and to expand their professional network. National health system assessment: Belgium The NCD office led a Public Health Review of NCDs and its determinants in Belgium, fulfilling a request by the Federal Public Health Service, Belgium. This was carried out in collaboration between the NCD office, WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development (Venice office), WHO European Centre for Environment and Health (Bonn office) and Policy and Governance for Health through the Life Course team (PGH team). Preparation of the Review strengthened capacity of the WHO European office teams to work together. A report and a policy brief providing policy recommendations were produced and currently under review by the country stakeholders. The report will be launched with a high-level meeting in Belgium with the participation of political leaders, federal and federated level policy makers, scientific and academic members, in October 2022. It will be followed by a capacity-building workshop focused on one of the main recommendations of the report - health taxes implementation and its impact on reducing inequities. NCD management Cancer: on 5th February 2022, WHO/EURO organized the annual United Action Against Cancer event and launched the Cancer Screening Guide. This event had the visit of the Cancer Ambassador to the Regional Office The launch of the inequities report on childhood cancer took place during the International Childhood Cancer Day, 15 February 2022. The event brought together policy makers, experts, patient associations, donors and the cancer ambassador, presenting a series of recommendations to address these inequalities. NCD UHC - Partnership As part of the UHC-Partnership agreement, WHO/EURO office coordinated the final presentation on integration of NCDs into PHC in UHC-Partnership countries - Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan - and joined the UHC-P Joint Working Team meeting to further strengthen implementation in the Region. Regional WHO Informal Consultation with PLWNCDs and MHCs WHO/EURO coordinated the Regional WHO Informal Consultation with PLWNCDs and MHCs organized together with HQ. The meeting aimed at supporting the co-creation and contextualization of a WHO Framework for Meaningful Engagement of PLWNCDs and MHCs and allowed to identify regional and country-level insights, experiences, approaches and nuances in implementing meaningful engagement of PLWNCDs as well as existing barriers and implementation gaps. A report will be published by HQ. Communications In the wake of Ukrainian crisis, attention of the media has significantly shifted, lowering the priority of COVID-19 themes. The NCD Office refocused its communications campaigns respectively – highlighting that noncommunicable diseases remain the biggest threat for people’s health even during emergencies and conflicts. The NCD Office media campaigns show that even as journalists were busy covering the Ukrainian crisis, there still was a potential to spark general audience’s interest in the context of prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases. The European Regional Obesity Report 2022 In May, The European Regional Obesity Report 2022 was launched at a virtual event with Regional Director’s participation. The launch was preceded by a press conference where, based on the media invitation and intense pitching, over 80 media registered interest in receiving the report under embargo and up to 60 registered for the press briefing and many submitted interview requests. The messages were further disseminated by a corporate news item and social media activities. The report received huge media attention and we are looking at impressive coverage with over 240 articles in major outlets including BMJ, The Guardian, the Times, El Pais, Irish Times, Berlin Zeitung, BBC News, Politico, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Al Jazeera and newswires such as AP, Reuters, ANSA, AFP, TASS, DPA, APA. Regional Director Dr Hans Kluge was quoted in 161 articles. World No Tobacco Day 2022 For World No Tobacco Day 2022 (31 May), NCD Office has produced a series of materials focusing on harms that tobacco industry brings to the environment that results in even more health threats for people. For WHO Country Offices, the NCD Office has prepared an editable press note template that could be easily adjusted and disseminated as needed. Among the new communication products were a documentary video highlighting Georgia’s successful fight for stricter tobacco policy laws and a Russian-language podcast series on tobacco use produced by WHO Regional Office in collaboration with the NCD Office. The podcast accumulated much attention at the WHO Russian CO account on VK.com social media platform. Overall, WHO World No Tobacco Day messages were picked up by numerous regional media and gained extensive coverage. Policy dialogues to fight obesity in Western Balkans and Central Asia In May and June, the NCD Office accumulated interest of key stakeholders and health professionals starting Policy dialogues to fight obesity in Western Balkans and Central Asia. The events were followed by official press releases from the countries’ authorities that were picked up by local media. The COSI Kyrgyzstan report was cited by Central Asian newswires further disseminating WHO’s messages. In Addition, the NCD Office produced social media and a corporate news item to support the campaign. “No place for cheap alcohol” report launch In June, the new NCD Office report “No place for cheap alcohol. The potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives” was launched during an online event that was pitched to the regional media. The communications campaign included a media briefing with leading journalists, particularly from the UK, who joined to ask experts and report authors clarifying questions about the report findings. The launch led to a considerable media coverage of the report with over 20 media hits in English, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. Media outlets featuring the report included The Telegraph, The Independent, Handelsblatt, the Irish Examiner, Komsomolskaya Pravda and the BMJ. Later in 2022: planned activities WHO Regional Committee 2022 During the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC72), to be held on 12–14 September 2022, the NCD Office will contribute to several sessions. The major NCD topics will be on the Regional Committee agenda: • Obesity “epidemic” in Europe • European framework for action on alcohol 2022–2025 • Cancer prevention Upcoming Training courses and workshops in 2022 • In April 2021, the NCD office successfully launched a professional development course for WHO Representatives and Heads of Office to update participants on the latest NCD evidence and ‘hot topics’, share successful NCD strategies used in the national context, gain insights into innovative solutions, and further develop advocacy strategies. In 2022, this course will be revised and adapted for National Professional Officers (NPOs) in Country Offices across the Region. • In October 2021, the NCD office launched a professional development course for medical students “WHO do you want to be”. It was designed by the WHO European Office for the  Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Office) and International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA). The course focused on the development of competences as well as on the discussion and training in specific topics related to the NCDs. The goal of this activity was to build the capacity among the IFMSA members of the European Region in order to prepare them to work on this topic at national and international level. This course is planned to become an annual activity with the next round scheduled for November - December 2022. • During the number of events dedicated to collaboration with the youth, it was clear that early career researchers and young public health practitioners from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, would significantly benefit from the Scientific Writing Programme. This single regional scientific writing programme will be designed to assist non- native English early career researchers and young public health practitioners to develop their writing skills when preparing scientific articles for journals and publications for dissemination to a global audience. This programme is planned to be launched in September 2022. • Healthy School Nutrition Project is another NCD Office activity focused at providing technical support to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to develop communication campaign on healthy school nutrition with the behavioural insights perspective. Planned to be launched in September 2022. • Workshop on Front of pack labelling in Uzbekistan on 28 September 2022 : The workshop will provide an opportunity to better understand the steps and requirements to adopt FOPL in UZB. • Capacity building – Front-of-pack nutrition labelling sub-regional workshop in collaboration with Eurasian Economic Commission in Armenia is planned for November. The objective of the workshop is to gather selected stakeholders from Eurasian Economic Commission and experts from its Member States to share the latest knowledge in the fields of FOPL and marketing of unhealthy products, including effects of marketing on children and adolescence, existing policies, and approaches to tackle marketing of unhealthy products. • Online training course on the enforcement of tobacco control legislation • Participation in the workshop organized by American Pediatric Society for representatives of Pediatric Societies from Romania, Moldova and Turkey on Tobacco Control, 19-20 August 2022 • Joint workshop of WHO with Norwegian Cancer Society and McCabe Centre on Law and Tobacco Control Workshop: Global and European perspectives, 20-21 October 2022 • Health System and Tobacco Cessation – training course in Russian language, November 2022 • Workshop on Tobacco Control for Western Balkan countries, planned for November 2022 • WHO/Europe training course on noncommunicable diseases 2022: surveillance, implementation and evaluation, second round from October 6th 2022 – March 2nd 2023 Primary healthcare and intersectional work The NCD Office will launch following products to support primary healthcare and intersectional work ( Dates , TBC, November 2022) • Manual on Integrated Brief Interventions for Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factors in Primary Healthcare to promote an integrated approach to brief interventions delivery to be launched in November 2022.  • Study Report on Integrated Brief Interventions for Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factors in Primary Healthcare to present the results of the online survey and in-depth interviews with healthcare providers across the Region to be launched in November 2022. • Systems thinking for noncommunicable disease prevention policy. Guidance to bring systems approaches into practice is planned to be launched in September 2022. Nutrition and obesity • 18th Meeting of the European Salt Action Network (ESAN) to be conducted online on 29 September 2022: This annual salt network meeting will provide an opportunity for WHO EURO regional office to share the initiatives on salt reduction such as launch of 24 hour urine collection videos for sodium intake, protocol for sodium intake, salt reduction campaign and Feedcities project in the Region. • The NCD Office plans to develop a policy brief on impact of front of pack labelling by reviewing the pathway of effectiveness (Food choice, Food intake) with recommendations on front of pack labelling in October 2022 • Recognizing that childhood obesity must be addressed as a burning health issue, a Summit of First Ladies and First Gentlemen of the WHO European Region was announced during the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC72). The summit will aim to establish a network of First Ladies and First Gentlemen to take the lead on advocating multi-level approach and high-level political action to counter childhood obesity. The first summit will be co-hosted in 2023 by Croatia and WHO Regional Office for Europe. Physical activity • A launch of OECD physical activity report “Step up! Tackling the burden of insufficient physical activity in the European region”. The campaign will show the latest data on the topic and explain how increasing physical activity levels can prevent 20 000 premature deaths per year across the Region. Tobacco use • Nicotine and Tobacco-Free School Policy Implementation Toolkit • Model Tobacco Control Law for the CIS countries • Exclusive and dual use of electronic cigarettes among European youth in 32 countries with different regulatory landscape – manuscript for peer-reviewed journal • Novel and emerging tobacco and nicotine products videos for policy-makers and general public • Organization of sessions on tobacco control and novel nicotine and tobacco products as part of the EAEU Symposium on Youth, 25 August 2022 • Organization of tobacco control session as part of the Youth Forum, Tirana, Albania, October 2022 • WHO-ICO symposium in collaboration with Barcelona collaborating center, December 2022 Alcohol • Launch of the EU-funded Evidence into Action Alcohol Project (awarded a total of 10 million EUR by the European Commission) • Reboot of the EU technical focal point network, also as part of the EU project launch • Awareness Week on Alcohol Related Harm with a focus on alcohol health warnings on alcoholic beverages and cancer awareness  • A public webinar on the launch of the third edition of the international monograph “Alcohol No Ordinary Commodity” and specific dissemination activities in the WHO European Region • Conducting a research study on the perception of alcohol health warnings in different countries of the European Union, in collaboration with the Behavioral and Cultural Insights Team and as part of the EU-funded project • Carrying out the RUS-AUDIT implementation study in the Russian Federation, in close collaboration with the WHO Country Office in the Russian Federation and Russian experts and institutions • Organizing and conducting a training on conflict of interest for Member States representatives and launch of the Alcohol Playbook and a concept note on conflict of interest and mitigation strategies, produced in collaboration with PAHO • Continuation of the EURO/PAHO webinar series and webinar on FASD and community perspectives as part of the FASD awareness day • Preparing a series of fact sheets on alcohol and families, community action and stigma NCDs and Climate Change Expert meeting on NCDs and climate change (1-2 December 2022): WHO has identified climate change as one of the greatest health threats of the 21st century, and air pollution as the single largest environmental health risk. At the same time, NCDs constitute the largest and fastest growing global health burden, with treatment costs placing a massive strain on government and individual resources. The scaling up of international commitment on NCDs over the past decade had initially focused on four risk factors: tobacco use, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. Exposure to each of these risks has a strong element of personal choice, with the responsibility often placed on individual rather than on broader societal responses. However, these risks are also strongly affected by social determinants, including commodity prices, production methods, marketing and social norms, and in the case of activity levels, the physical environment. A range of other risk factors for NCDs are even more strongly linked to environmental exposures – and to climate change. Therefore, together, climate change, air pollution and NCDs represent one of the most serious threats to global health. The NCD Office in collaboration with the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health (Bonn, Germany), will hold an expert meeting in December to discuss the challenges to health from climate change and identify linkages to align the climate change and NCD prevention agendas. Planned collaboration at global level There are several innovative projects initiated by the NCD Office which have the capacity to be scaled up to the global level. For example: the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative, health in prisons (with a focus on NCDs), big-data approaches to addressing NCDs, harnessing artificial intelligence to tackle NCDs, tools to monitor children’s exposure to digital marketing of unhealthy products, linking the UN climate action agenda with obesity-prevention, and strengthening primary health care and universal health coverage to more effectively prevent and control NCDs (e.g. screening and brief interventions for lifestyle risk factors, developing targeted communication material for hard-to-reach populations, using behavioral insights). The NCD Office can also support in global capacity building through a series of training courses aimed at WHO Representatives, NCD Directors, National Professional Officers, and other stakeholders (including academics and civil society). Possible other areas include: contributing courses on NCD prevention and surveillance to the WHO Academy, providing training with the support of collaborating center networks, and strengthening implementation science by sharing training material and methods developed by Member States and a global community of experts. Collaboration between the NCD Office and a network of experts from the Russian Federation The NCD Office established an in-country network of experts to provide technical support to Member States of the European Region under the direction of WHO/EURO. The network aims to facilitate sharing of knowledge and expertise between countries, to develop partnerships between policy-makers and health professionals, and to improve health outcomes in the Region. It draws upon a pool of experience, knowledge and skills from Russian experts working in the fields of policy- making, epidemiology, surveillance and treatment of NCDs and is very much involved in areas of tobacco and alcohol use as well as breastfeeding, marketing to children, nutrition and NCD investment cases. In 2022, the NCD Office has collaborated with the Russian Federation on monitoring of the nutritional composition of food products in the Russian Federation and analysis of their labelling. • An assessment was conducted to analyse the content of potassium, sodium (food salt) and TFA in food products in the trade network of Moscow, as well as to examine information on labels of food products. The NCD Office is planning to develop a report based on the findings. • Front of pack labelling: WHO European Regional office continue to support the member states to be able to design, adapt and apply front of pack labelling • The NCD Office is providing technical support to UZB in adapting and implementing of the Nutrition Score system. • Experienced Russian experts led a workshop on the methodology of TV marketing organised by the NCD Office as a capacity building event in Baku, Azerbaijan in June 2022. The NCD Office provides continuous support to Russian Federation as a COSI survey country for Round 6 data collection. Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative training was hosted online in Russian between the 20th of June to the 5th of July. 140 trainers from 8 CIS countries were present and plan to disseminate course information in their respective countries in the coming months. Trainers were from several health institutes across the countries. Health System and Tobacco Cessation training course in Russian language will be organized by the NCD Office in November 2022. In addition, the NCD Office is producing a Russian-language WHO podcast series. In 2022, new episodes on tobacco marketing are planned, after which other NCD topics will be covered. The podcast have already accumulated much attention at the WHO Russian CO account on VK.com social media platform. 2022 Publication list NCD Office scientific publications • Bach-Faig, A., Wickramasinghe, K., Panadero, N. et al. Consensus-building around the conceptualisation and implementation of sustainable healthy diets: a foundation for policymakers. BMC Public Health 22, 1480 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022- 13756-y • Kovacs VA, Brandes M, Suesse S, Blagus R, Whiting S, Wickramasinghe K, Okely AD (2022). Are we underestimating the impact of COVID-19 on children's physical activity in Europe? - a study of 24 302 children. Eur J Public Health 2022 Jun 1;32(3):494-496 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35022680/ • Tcymbal A, Gelius P, Abu-Omar K, Messing S, Whiting S and Wickramasinghe K (2022). Cross- country collaboration for physical activity promotion: experiences from the European Union Physical Activity Focal Points Network Eur J Public Health 32(1), September 2022. • Johnson S, Vuillemin A, Lane A, Dowd K, Geidne S, Kokko S, Donaldson A, Seghers J, Whiting S and Van Hoye A (2022). Development of the health promoting sports club—national audit tool. Eur J Public Health 32(1), September 2022. • Abu-Omar K, Messing S, Tcymbal A, Fleuren T, Richardson D, Whiting S, Gelius P and Wickramasinghe K (2022). A proposed checklist for climate-friendly sport and exercise programmes. Eur J Public Health 32(1), September 2022 (in print). • Barbosa A, Whiting S, Ding D, Brito J and Mendes R (2022). Economic evaluation of physical activity interventions for type 2 diabetes management: a systematic review Eur J Public Health 32(1), September 2022. • Maximova K, Whiting S, Rakovac I et al (2022). Exploring educational inequalities in hypertension control, salt knowledge and awareness, and patient advice: insights from the WHO STEPS Surveys of adults from nine eastern European and central Asian countries. Public Health Nutrition (under review) • Kwong E, Whiting S, Wickramasinghe K et al (2022). Population level salt intake in the WHO European Region in 2022: a systematic review. Public Health Nutrition (in print) • Rieger M, Pinedo A, Rippin H, Farrand C, Whiting S, Wickramasinghe K (2022). Projecting Cardiovascular Deaths Averted due to Trans Fat Policies in the Eurasian Economic Union. Public Health Nutrition (in print). • Marzi I, Tcymbal A, Gelius P, Abu-Omar K, Reimers AK, Whiting S, Wickramasinghe K (2022). Monitoring of physical activity promotion in children and adolescents in the EU: current status and future perspectives. Eur J Public Health 2022 Feb 1;32(1):95-104. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34791137/ • Special supplement: 2022 HEPA Europe Conference: ‘an ecosystem approach to health- enhancing physical activity promotion. Eur J Public Health 32(1), September 2022. • Abstract supplement: 2022 HEPA Europe Conference: ‘an ecosystem approach to health- enhancing physical activity promotion. Eur J Public Health 32(2), September 2022. • Alves da Costa F, Verschuuren M, Andersen Y, Stürup-Toft S, Lopez-Acuña D, Ferreira- Borges C. The WHO Prison Health Framework: a framework for assessment of prison health system performance. Eur J Public Health. 2022 Aug 1;32(4):565-570. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckac020 • Sousa, S., Albuquerque, G., Gelormini, M., Casal, S., Pinho, O., Damasceno, A., Moreira, P., Breda, J., Lunet, N., & Padrão, P. (2022). Nutritional content of the street food purchased in Chișinău, Moldova: Opportunity for Policy Action. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, 27, 100456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2021.100456 • Albuquerque, G., Lança de Morais, I., Gelormini, M., Sousa, S., Casal, S., Pinho, O., Damasceno, A., Moreira, P., Breda, J., Lunet, N., & Padrão, P. (2022). Availability and nutritional composition of street food in Urban Central Asia: Findings from Almaty, Kazakhstan. International Journal of Public Health, 67. https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604558 • Albuquerque, G., Sousa, S., Lança de Morais, I., Gelormini, M., Motta, C., Gonzales, G. B., Ovezov, A., Damasceno, A., Moreira, P., Breda, J., Lunet, N., & Padrão, P. (2022). Nutritional characterization of street food in Turkmenistan, Central Asia. Frontiers in Public Health, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.877906 • Sousa, S., Lança de Morais, I., Albuquerque, G., Gelormini, M., Casal, S., Pinho, O., Motta, C., Damasceno, A., Moreira, P., Breda, J., Lunet, N., & Padrão, P. (2022). Patterns of street food purchase in cities from Central Asia. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.925771 • Sousa, S., de Morais, I. L., Albuquerque, G., Gelormini, M., Filipović-Hadžiomeragić, A., Stojisavljevic, D., Damasceno, A., Moreira, P., Breda, J., Lunet, N., & Padrão, P. (2022). Street food and takeaway food purchasing patterns in Bosnia and Herzegovina. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(15), 9086. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159086 • Editorial: A holistic approach is needed to overcome the obesity epidemic. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. Volume 17, June 2022, 100431 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100431 • Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in Europe: learning for the future Anne Marie Thow, Holly L Rippin, Georgina Mulcahy, Keeva Duffey, Kremlin Wickramasinghe. European Journal of Public Health, Volume 32, Issue 2, April 2022, Pages 273–280. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckab211 • Boniface, S. (2022). WHO concludes there’s “no place for cheap alcohol”. bmj, 378. https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o1810.full • Neufeld M., Rovira P., Ferreira-Borges C., Kilian C., Sassi F., Veryga A., Rehm J. (2022) Impact of introducing a minimum alcohol tax share in retail prices on alcohol-attributable mortality in the WHO European Region: A modelling study. The Lancet Regional Health- Europe. 2022 Apr 1;15:100325. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(22)00018-7/fulltext • Rehm, J., Shield, K. D., Bunova, A., Ferreira‐Borges, C., Franklin, A., Gornyi, B., ... & Neufeld, M. (2022). Prevalence of alcohol use disorders in primary healthcare facilities in Russia in 2019. Addiction. 117(6), 1640-1646 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.15816 • Schomerus, G., Leonhard, A., Manthey, J., Morris, J., Neufeld, M., Kilian, C., Speerforck, S., Winkler, P., & Corrigan, P.W. (2022). The stigma of alcohol-related liver disease and its impact on healthcare. Journal of Hepatology. 77(2), 516-524. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168827822002628 • Manthey, J., Benegal, V., Kilian, C., Mahadevan, J., Mejía-Trujillo, J., Morojele, N., ... & Rehm, J. (2022). International Perspectives on Stigma toward People with Substance Use Disorders. The Stigma of Substance Use Disorders, 107-143. • Kilian, C., Rovira, P., Neufeld, M., Manthey, J., & Rehm, J. (2022). Potenzielle Auswirkungen erhöhter Alkoholsteuern auf die alkoholbedingte Krankheitslast in Deutschland: Eine Modellierungsstudie. Bundesgesundheitsblatt, 1-9. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00103-022-03528-9 • Kilian, C., Neufeld, M., Manthey, J., Alavidze, S., Bobrova, A., Baron-Epel, O., ... & Rehm, J. (2022). Self-reported changes in alcohol and tobacco use during COVID-19: findings from the eastern part of WHO European Region. European Journal of Public Health, 32(3), 474- 480. https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/32/3/474/6523922  • Wiemker, V., Bunova, A., Neufeld, M., Gornyi, B., Yurasova, E., Konigorski, S., ... & Probst, C. (2022). Pilot study to evaluate usability and acceptability of the ‘Animated Alcohol Assessment Tool in Russian primary healthcare. Digital health, 8, https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076211074491 • Wiemker, V., Neufeld, M., Bunova, A., Danquah, I., Ferreira-Borges, C., Konigorski, S., ... & Probst, C. (2022). Digital Assessment Tools Using Animation Features to Quantify Alcohol Consumption: Systematic App Store and Literature Review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 24(3), e28927. https://doi.org/10.2196/28927 • Bunova, A., Wiemker, V., Gornyi, B., Ferreira-Borges, C., & Neufeld, M. (2022). Russian- language mobile applications for reducing alcohol use: a systematic search and evaluation. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth,10(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/31058 • Understanding the digital media ecosystem. How the evolution of the digital marketing ecosystem impacts tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food marketing. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2022. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. • Thirteenth meeting of the WHO Action Network on Salt Reduction on the Population in the European Region (ESAN): Virtual meeting, 2 September 2021. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe; 2022. Licence: CC BYNC-SA 3.0 IGO. • A CIS Alcohol Policy Network report: technical meeting to strengthen implementation of key priority areas of the WHO European action plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/WHO-EURO-2021-2951-42709-59561 • Bunova, A., Gornyi, B., Kushunina D., Yurasova E., Kalinina.,… & Neufeld, M. (2022). Выявление расстройств, обусловленных употреблением алкоголя, в условиях первичной медико-санитарной помощи: валидация теста RUS-AUDIT-S для самозаполнения [Identification of alcohol use disorders in primary health care: validation of the RUS-AUDIT-S self-report version]. Profilakticheskaya Meditsina, 25(8), 21-30. • Neufeld, M., Ferreira-Borges, C., Bunova, A., Gornyi, B., Feadeeva, A… & Rehm, J. (in print). Capturing Russian drinking patterns with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: an exploratory interview study in primary healthcare and narcology centers in Moscow. PlosOne. • Kilian, C., Manthey J., Neufeld, M., & Rehm J. (in print). Affordability of alcoholic beverages in the European Union. European Addiction Research. • Jaeger, L., Devi, T., Barbazza, E., Neufeld, M., Franz, C., Marten, R., & Tello, J. (in print). The global geography of scientific articles on alcohol for the period 2010–2021: A bibliometric analysis. BMJ Open. NCD Office 2022 publications • Tobacco use in prisons factsheet (2022) • MPOWER implementation in the WHO European Region (2022) • WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022 (ENG) • WHO European Regional Obesity Report 2022 policy brief (ENG and RUS) • No place for cheap alcohol: the potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives (2022) • Regional technical consultation with Member States on the working document for development of the Action plan (2022–2030) to effectively implement the Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol as a public health priority (2022) • Addressing the noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden in prisons in the WHO European Region: interventions and policy options (2022) • Cancer and cardiovascular health inequities in prison settings: a rapid literature review (2022) • Leaving no one behind in prison health: the Helsinki conclusions (2022) • Factsheet - Prison health: Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) (2022) • Factsheet - Prison health: Non-communicable respiratory diseases (2022) • Factsheet - Prison health: Cancer (2022) • Factsheet - Prison health: Obesity (2022) • Factsheet - Prison health: Mental health disorders (2022) • Factsheet – Tobacco use in prisons (2022) • Improving dietary intake and achieving food product improvement: policy opportunities and challenges for the WHO European Region in reducing salt and sugar in the diet: featuring case studies from United Kingdom, Israel, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands • Kyrgyzstan COSI Round 5 publications: o Report (ENG and RUS) o Factsheet (ENG and RUS) • STEPS: Prevalence of risk factors for noncommunicable diseases in the Republic of Belarus (RUS) (2022) • How many lives could be saved in the Baltic states with a minimum level of alcohol tax? Briefing note on the launch of the NCD Advisory Council Signature Initiative on alcohol tax (2022) • European framework for action on alcohol, 2022–2025. Information sheet • STEPS Ukraine factsheet: Alcohol consumption in adults aged 18–69 years. • Policy brief: taxing sugar-sweetened beverages (2022) • Health-promoting sports clubs national audit tool (2022) • The out-of-home food environment: report of a WHO Regional Office for Europe and Public Health England expert meeting, 10 June 2021 • Seventeenth Annual Meeting of HEPA Europe: European network for the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity. Meeting Report: virtual meeting, 3 September 2021 (2022) • Urban design for health: inspiration for the use of urban design to promote physical activity and healthy diets in the WHO European Region • Fifteenth Meeting of the WHO European Action Network on Reducing Marketing Pressure on Children • Thirteenth meeting of the WHO Action Network on Salt Reduction on the Population in the European Region (ESAN): Virtual meeting, 2 September 2021 • Systems thinking for noncommunicable disease prevention policy: guidance to bring systems approaches into practice • Report of the expert meeting to strengthen capacity in screening and brief interventions for alcohol in Russian-speaking populations (2022) • Turning down the alcohol flow. Background document on the European framework for action on alcohol, 2022–2025 • How together we can make the world’s most healthy and sustainable public food procurement • Use of nutrient profile models for nutrition and health policies: meeting report on the use of nutrient profile models in the WHO European Region Visibility NCD Office 2022 news items • WHO/Europe to launch new sugar and calorie reduction initiative led by the United Kingdom (20 January 2022) • “Patients should be co-developers of digital health apps”: Polina’s story about fighting disease with innovation (9 February 2022) • New WHO signature initiative shows raising alcohol taxes could save 130 000 lives per year (23 February) • 85% of adolescent girls don’t do enough physical activity: new WHO study calls for action (4 March 2022) • 5 recommendations to reduce salt intake to live longer and healthier lives (14 March 2022) • Have your say: WHO holds public consultation to reduce alcohol consumption (15 March 2022) • Taxes on sweetened drinks: WHO explains how to make them an effective health measure (21 March 2022) • Fighting COVID-19 in prisons: WHO report presents best practices from countries (31 March 2022) • New WHO data on childhood obesity in Kazakhstan: higher physical activity levels but more screen time (16 April 2022) • A new WHO tool to empower organized sports clubs to promote health (22 April 2022) • Obesity causes cancer and is major determinant of disability and death, warns new WHO report (3 May 2022) • WHO report highlights a new approach to reducing NCD risks in prisons (10 May 2022) • EU ban on microplastics stubs out cigarette butt pollution (30 May 2022) • The role of the public in changing norms: smoke-free beaches in Spain (30 May 2022) • New WHO report: European Region is still vulnerable to predatory marketing of breast-milk substitutes (10 June 2022) • New WHO report: marketing technologies may be a surprising ally in making the internet healthier (23 June 2022) • WHO begins subregional policy dialogues to fight obesity (24 June 2022) • Protecting prisoners from cancer: new WHO report explains how to fight health inequities (17 July 2022) • “Heatwaves create difficulties for breastfeeding” – Tajikistan steps up for babies’ health (1 August 2022) • Foods for infants and young children: a matter of concern? (3 August 2022) • Health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) Europe 2022 Conference (August 2022) • How can cities shape up? Encouraging healthy diets and active lifestyles in urban environments (31 August 2022) • We know effective measures for better health – why don’t we implement them? (7 September 2022) • Time to accept that obesity is a disease – Austria is building a national system to treat it (8 September 2022) • Involving youth in alcohol policies: imagining and planning for a better world (14 September 2022) • How do we turn down the flow of the alcohol tap? – video (14 September 2022) • First Ladies and Gentlemen of Europe rise to the challenge of childhood obesity (03 October 2022) • Health data: a cornerstone for the WHO Roadmap for Health in Central Asia (06 October 2022) • Open call for experts to serve as members of the Technical Advisory Group for One Health (06 October 2022) = = = Saatja: EURO Governance <[email protected]> Saaja: EURO Governance Teema: Zoom link for the 2nd regular session of the 30th SCRC (open) Dear Sir, dear Madam, Please find below the connection details to the 2nd regular session of the 30th Standing Committee of the Regional Committee, open to all Member States of the WHO European Region, and which will take place on Friday 2 December, from 09:00 to 15:00 (CET) (N.B. lunch break from 12:30 to 13:30). Please note that all WHO European Member State representatives will be given the opportunity to take the floor, in order to ask any questions or make any observations during the open session. Join Zoom Meeting https://who.zoom.us/j/96438576033 Meeting ID: 964 3857 6033 Passcode: EUROSCRC2! Join by SIP [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Join by H.323 162.255.37.11 (US West) 162.255.36.11 (US East) Meeting ID: 964 3857 6033 Pass: 7288835747 Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate and contact us at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Best regards, Regional Governance and Languages Unit Regional Governance and Languages Unit Regional Directors Division WHO Regional Office for Europe Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen , Denmark T: +45 45 33 68 51 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> | WHO/Europe - Governance<https://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/governance> [cid:[email protected]] From: EURO Governance Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2022 12:17 PM To: EURO Governance <[email protected]> Cc: EURO Governance <[email protected]> Subject: WHO/Europe Invitation to the Second session of the 30th SCRC for Europe Dear Sir, Dear Madam, Please find attached correspondence sent from the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe. Sincerely yours, Regional Governance and Languages Team Regional Governance and Languages Unit Regional Directors Division WHO Regional Office for Europe Marmorvej 51, DK-2100 Copenhagen , Denmark T: +45 45 33 68 51 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> | WHO/Europe - Governance<https://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/governance> [cid:[email protected]]