• English
• Français
• Deutsch
• Pусский

EHPRs identify the most important environment and health problems, evaluate the public health impact of environmental exposures and review the policy and institutional framework, taking into account the institutional set-up, the policy setting and legal framework, the degree and structural functioning of intersectoral collaboration and the available tools for action in the country.

Seven steps

At the request of the country’s health ministry, two WHO technical experts carry out the EHPR through semistructured interviews with national technical representatives and policy-makers. The review is built through the following steps:

1. consultation with environment and health focal point/project counterpart within the Member State prior to review;
2. application of standardized methodology for the review, developed at onset;
3. collection and analysis of relevant policies, information, evidence and data; organization of the WHO field trip by the national counterpart;
4. WHO technical experts’ field trip to the country to interview pre-selected representatives of different sectors and institutions;
5. compilation of draft report summarizing the information collected during the field visit;
6. finalization of report with recommendations for action, submitted back to counterpart, head of country office, interviewees;
7. national workshop in which final conclusions are presented to policy-makers.

Funding

Six EHPRs were co-funded by the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General for Health and Consumers as a contribution to the European environment and health process. Additional EHPRs were implemented through bilateral agreements between WHO/Europe and some of its Member States during 2008–2009.

Background

EHPRs benefit from the experience made by a programme for environmental performance reviews (EPRs) launched in 1991 by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This programme helped OECD member countries improve their individual and collective performance in environmental management and was mandated to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 1993 to be extended to its European Region.

Between 1997 and 2004, WHO/Europe contributed to the EPRs by reviewing the health aspects related to the environment for: Bosnia and Herzegovina (2004), Tajikistan (2004), Azerbaijan (2003), Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro (2002), Romania, Uzbekistan (2001), Armenia (2000), Croatia, Ukraine (1999) and Lithuania (1998).