The Nordic Welfare Centre acts as the secretariat for the Nordic Arena for Public Health Issues, which aims to strengthen Nordic cooperation to ensure access to good and equitable health and to promote quality of life.
The Nordic Arena for Public Health Issues includes public health experts from the ministries of the Nordic countries. The arena is especially active in identifying knowledge-based, effective public health policies, health inequities and the main risk factors for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs): alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise. Among other objectives, the Arena aims to:
- strengthen Nordic cooperation for good and equitable health and promote quality of life;
- contribute to an increase in evidence-based, effective public health policies with good performance in the individual Nordic countries and in the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland
- contribute to the use of Nordic institutions such as the Nordic Welfare Centre, NOMESCO/NOSOSCO and other relevant Nordic institutions in the promotion of good and equitable health in the Nordic region
- promote cross-sectoral public health policy cooperation at national and international level; and
- contribute to realising the vision of the Nordic Council of Ministers of a socially sustainable, green and competitive Nordic region.
The tasks of the Arena include:
- collaborating on the development and utilisation of public health and quality of life statistics
- contributing to the development of common methods for the assessment of disease burden and methods to project health status
- contributing to the collaboration and development of methods and tools for the prioritisation of public health interventions, including methods for public health economic assessments and valuations
- cooperating on the development of quality of life policies
- collaborating on the evaluation of public health interventions
- exchanging information, experiences and good practice examples, and comparing cross-sectoral public health policy work at national level. The focus of the exchange is the content, organisation and implementation of public health policy, as well as sustainability and cost-effectiveness
- maintaining a special focus on sharing experiences and good practice examples in the field of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their prevention
- providing a forum for the discussion of perspectives from the Nordic region in the area of public health policy issues that are of interest to all countries within the region, the EU and internationally
- contributing knowledge on public health issues at policy level and serving in an advisory role within the Nordic Council of Ministers.
- Helga Ágústsdóttir, Ministry of Health, Iceland
- Ole Trygve Stigen, Ministry of Health and Care Services, Norway
- Katrin Gaard, Heilsumálaráðið, Faroe Islands
- Nikoline Schriver, Indenrigs- og Sundhedsministeriet, Denmark
- Cecilia Lawson Vinje, Indenrigs- og Sundhedsministeriet, Denmark
- Sara Holsbrink, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden
- Heli Hätönen, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland
- Taru Koivisto, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland
- Knut Lönnroth, Government of Åland
The representative of the country holding the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers is appointed as the arena’s chairperson.
The current mandate of the Nordic Arena for Public Health Issues is for the period 2024-2027. The mandate sets out the objectives and tasks of the arena.
