Eurasian River Basin Portal

02.12.2016

November 29-30, 2016, Vienna hosted the Sixth meeting of the European Environment and Health Task Force (EHTF) arranged by the Government of Austria, to begin and advance the preparation of the political outcome documents for the Sixth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health.

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The European Environment and Health Task Force (EHTF) is the leading international body for implementation and monitoring of the European Environment and Health Process, meeting annually.

In total 36 countries were present at the meeting out of 53 members. NGO sector was represented by Ecoforum, European Environment Agency, Health and Environment Allience (HEAL), Regional Environmental Center (REC), European Environment and health Youth Coalition (EEHYC) as well as CAREC. UN agencies were represented by UNECE, UNEP, WHO Regional Office for Europe.

In particular, the discussion was focused on the following main areas:

1. The EHTF was informed about the main preparatory events for the 6th Ministerial Conference in 2017, the main outcomes of the discussions held at the International Youth Conference (Vienna, Austria, 27-29 November 2016); the Sixty-sixth WHO Regional Committee for Europe (Copenhagen, Denmark, 12–15 September 2016); the Eighth Ministerial Conference Environment for Europe (Batumi, Georgia, 8-10 June 2016; the second United Nations Environment Assembly (Nairobi, Kenya, 23-27 May 2016) and other relevant developments.

2.  To complement the background to the discussion on the outcomes of the Ministerial Conference, the Secretariat presented the outcomes from the consultations on technical themes that provided the background to the draft outcomes.

3. The EHTF was also informed about relevant aspects concerning the further preparation of the Conference, including the proposed outline of the programme, the communication strategy for the event and the list of forthcoming preparatory meetings and consultations in the run-up to the Conference.

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CAREC was represented by Ms. Shakhnoza Umarova, Health and Environment program coordinator. It was the first participation of CAREC in the EHP.

Collaboraton between CAREC and WHO European Center for Environment and Health was an outcome of the side-event held during the international conference dedicated to the 15th anniversary of CAREC. WHO Regional Office for Europe is considering CAREC to become one of the stakeholders of the European Environment and Health Process. It is a great opportunity for CAREC to become a communication bridge between WHO-Europe and government agencies in the countries to enhance the participation in EHP.

Background

The European Environment and Health Proces (EHP) takes place in the context of  system-wide strategic planning, implementation and reporting of the United Nations 2030 Agenda  for Sustainable Development, to ensure coherent and integrated support for implementation across countries, sectors and United Nations forums.

The European Environment and Health Task Force(EHTF) is  the leading international body for implementation and monitoring of the European Environment and Health Process. It is comprized of senior government officials from all Member States in the Region, nominated at national level as focal points for the process, representatives of WHO/Europe, and partner intergovernmental  (IGOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

The 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Parma, Italy in 2010, established the European Environment and Health Task Force (EHTF) as the leading international body for implementation and monitoring of the European Environment and Health Process (EHP).

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