Consultant on the Implementation of the Budapest Ministerial Conference commitments in Bonn bei World Health Organization

1. Purpose of consultancy

The purpose if this consultancy is to support WHO in preparing for a High Level Meeting with Member States scheduled for 2024 to exchange on the ways forward for implementing the Budapest Ministerial Commitments. To prepare for the Meeting, WHO, with the support of the consultant, will prepare the background document, a concept note and a draft programme for the Meeting and , identify a list of potential speakers and contributors.

2. Background

The Seventh Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, to be held in Budapest, Hungary, in July 2023, will address a range of priorities and approaches for the European Environment and Health Process and identify in its final declaration various commitments for national action by the Member States. To follow up on these priorities and commitments, the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health aims to hold a high level conference in 2024 on the implementation of the Budapest Ministerial Declaration.

The target audience of the conference will be directors and executive staff from ministries of environment and health, or respective national institutions working on environment and /or health policies, implementation and enforcement at national level, with a focus on the topical areas and commitments of the Budapest Declaration. There will be a maximum of one participant from each sector from each of the 53 Member States in the Region.

The conference will foster multidisciplinary knowledge exchange and multisectoral alliances by investigating strategic synergies among policy makers and environment and health stakeholders at the national level. It will support national actors in exchanging and reflecting on approaches, policies and interventions that can help to effectively address environmental determinants of health and implement the Budapest commitments. Focus will be put on the importance of interaction between different disciplines and sectors and on strengthening environment and health advocacy skills. Through exchange between national delegates, the conference will also strengthen senior management level engagement in the environment and health agenda in Member States. It will also contribute to an informal network at the international executive level and provide opportunities for exploring collaboration among participants.

To this end, the conference will provide information and opportunities for discussion on essential practices and approaches for effective national and subnational action and intersectoral collaboration on environment and health challenges.

The consultant will contribute to the technical preparation of the conference by producing 1) a background document, 2) a concept note, 3) a draft programme, and 4) a list of potential speakers and contributors.

The background document should cover seven components to be discussed during the conference, relating to two different categories.

Category 1: Institutions and resources
1. National institutional leadership and governance structures on implementing the Environment and Health agenda
2. Strategic communication and outreach on Environment and Health to effectively advocate for environment and health and engage actors and stakeholders in national Environment and Health governance
3. Workforce competencies needed to address contemporary and emerging Environment and Health challenges, and the necessary curriculum content for preparing and training the current and future workforce
4. Finance and economic aspects (4 aspects: economic incentives, efficient use of national budget, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), mobilizing resources from trust funds and financial institutions)

Category 2: Policy and implementation flows
5. Knowledge translation: translating Environment and Health research and evidence into national policies and action plans
6. Inter-sectoral collaboration to integrate Environment and Health in different sectors and policies (EH in all policies)
7. Streamlining implementation of Environment and Health policies and actions across governmental levels (national to local)

3. Deliverables