Fifth high-level meeting of small countries: working together for better health and well-being for all 26–27 June 2018, Reykjavik, Iceland

WHO established the Small Countries Initiative so that countries in the WHO European Region with a population of less than 1 million people can share their knowledge on implementing Health 2020.

WHCA joined the High Level meeting to conduct interviews with Ministers and others to further support the development of a planned WHO Regional Office for Europe 10 year reflection book and advocacy guide on health impacts in Member States of new policies (e.g. Health 2020 and the Sustainable Development Goals), programmes, governance structures and leadership models.

The 8 members of the initiative are: 

Key action areas

These countries' commitment to implementing Health 2020 led to the formulation of the San Marino Manifesto and to an agreement to work on 4 key actions:

  1. document how to align national health policies to Health 2020;
  2. develop joint capacity-building events and structures between WHO/Europe and participants in the small countries initiative to promote health and reduce health inequities;
  3. create a supportive environment for Health 2020 through better engagement of the media as an implementation partner; and
  4. create a platform for sharing experiences and mutual learning about Health 2020 implementation.

The Reykjavik meeting was the Fifth High-level Meeting of the Small Countries and focussed on: Working together for better health and wellbeing. Country based initiatives related to SDG’s, climate change and water, non communicable diseases were shared and discussed.