| REVIEW OF NATIONAL FINNISH
HEALTH PROMOTION POLICIES (OF 1990S). ISSN 1236-2115
ISBN 952-00-1239-7
SUMMARY
This report results from a request of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of
Finland to the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO/EURO) to
appraise the overall Finnish health promotion system – its past performance and
future potential – in the light of the fast changing policy context of Finland within
the wider world. Particular emphasis was placed on: consistency of implementation; short
term and long term impact of policy processes adopted; factors that have facilitated
reforms; relevance, appropriateness and timing; unplanned side-effects (if any) of actions
undertaken: and opportunities for future progress.
The appraisal was conducted by an international
team assembled by WHO/EURO. The methodology used was adapted for the purpose by the team
from other approaches to appraisal and evaluation. Its main approaches and resources were:
an analysis of key documents (making extensive use of web-published materials as well as
hard copies, and including already published overview articles), interviews with
officials, key informants and stakeholders; meetings with selected committees and groups,
and site visits; methodological experiences from earlier WHO Health For All evaluations
and Investment for Health appraisals; reviewing competence represented by the team
members' individual experiences.
The main findings of the review were a re-affirmation of Finland's strong basis in
health policy thinking and planning, but with questions raised about a number of aspects
of the current system, in particular:
- the performance by national institutions
collectively of the required range of functions and responsibilities to lead and support
contemporary health promotion;
- the extent of leadership, systematic practice and
professional and technical resources of health promotion at municipal level, especially
the engagement of health promotion in the overall social and economic agendas locally, and
the systematic sharing of good practice among the municipalities;
- the mandate, scope, resources and infrastructure
of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health to fulfil the major challenges of strategic
leadership and coordination of the inter-sectoral policy agenda;
- the possibilities for strategically directing and
managing the range of funding instruments available for health promotion funding at
national level;
- the availability in future of people having the
range of requisite skills and experiences, in the numbers, places and positions required
in order to achieve the national health policy objectives.
Detailed recommendations were
provided, which are can be summarized as a need to give attention to:
- sustaining and strengthening the inter-sectoral
mechanisms;
- ensuring the numbers, skills, strengths and
preparedness of human resource capacity at all levels, for both strategic planning and
management functions and for implementation ;
- considering the introduction and application of
the technique of Health Impact Analysis to all major health-relevant initiatives;
- ensuring robust implementation arrangements for Health
2015, including developing the role of the Public Health Advisory Board, ensuring the
existence and systematic management of all the necessary elements for modern health
promotion, optimising funding arrangements;
- working out how best to assist the municipalities
in their crucial role of promoting the health of the populations they serve;
- ensuring that the critical roles performed at
national level to support and facilitate local health promotion are appropriately assigned
and managed;
- tailoring the research and development agenda to
the priorities of knowledge-based policy-making and practice.
Key words: evaluation,
national health, health promotion, health policies, WHO
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