After the Conference

We decided that as meeting together is a rare event, we would make the most of the time we have together and schedule a post Conference feedback and de brief session following the closure of the conference on 12th March. We will convene in the building we held our preparatory days in and hold a debriefing and feed back session.

Our consensus is that CEHAPE is not a five year project, so we will also take the time to reaffirm our commitment to continuing the activities of the WHO CEHAPE Youth Network and build our plans for the expansion of our Network and extension of our activities, building upon the outcomes of Parma.

Participation at the Conference

We plan to be visible during the Conference
through, for example, the daily update of our Youth Blog

http://env-health-youth.blogspot.com/

Regular postings of our activities will be placed on the blog as a record of our activities during the days. These will include our reactions to Conference session outcomes, reports on ad hoc discussions with key people in the Environment and Health movement and thoughts on the whole process recorded by our observers.

A number of us will be participating as official members of national Ministerial delegations and we aim to be active delegate members through our participation in plenary debates and discussions with our Ministers and officials.
Some of us are busy already in our countries, preparing short video spots. We hope that these will be projected at various timed throughout the conference, providing a youth perspective on different aspects of CEHAPE.

In the panel sessions we will be putting our prepared questions to Ministers and providing a youth focus to the discussions that the sessions stimulate.
We also hope to make ourselves visible during some of the less formal moments of the Conference when we are able to circulate at coffee breaks and lunches, sparking off discussion, networking with other organisations and maybe asking those questions that there were no time for during the debates.

WHO CEHAPE Youth Network Conference preparation days

The plans that we have for our participation in Parma are extensive. Our representation at the conference will include young people from over 40 countries of the WHO European Region, all of whom are in action in environment and health activities in their countries. We will come together on the two days before the conference to finalise plans for our Conference participation.

The preparatory days (9-10th of March 2010) will include the final selection and preparation of representatives who will participate in the three panel sessions we are scheduled to be active in.

In addition we will put the finishing touches to the presentations we will be making at the joint side events that we are planning, in collaboration with HEAL, (the Health and Environment Alliance) and the World Business Council.

The Network has been working on the preparation of the 5th Ministerial Conference WHO CEHAPE Youth Network Declaration which it is hoped we will be presenting to Ministers for its inclusion as a Conference outcome, as was the case in Budapest when the first Youth declaration was presented. During the preparatory days, we will finalise and approve the declaration ready for its presentation.

WHO in collaboration with DG SANCO are preparing for a three year project on physical activity, children and young people. They have approached the WHO CEHAPE Youth Network for collaboration in the project and so we have scheduled a session on the second day of our preparatory days to discuss some of the case studies that have been prepared and plan the activities for the three years collaboration.

The City of Parma is hosting us during the conference an we know that they are preparing a number of events for us to enjoy. These include site visits to some environmental projects in the city and different kinds of evening entertainment.

Towards to Parma. WHO CEHAPE Youth Network participation

WHO CEHAPE Youth Network participation

at the WHO 5th Ministerial Conference
on Environment and Health

10-12 March 2010, Parma, Italy

We, the WHO CEHAPE Youth Network, set ourselves up in 2004 when, in Budapest, at the 4th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, Ministers and young people agreed to build youth participation into the implementation of the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe. Since that time, groups of young people from around Europe have met on a regular basis to discuss CEHAPE with policy and decision makers and plan our active participation in CEHAPE, adding value to its implementation. Young people have also been active internationally through our regular participation in the European Environment and Health Committee and the CEHAPE Task Force meetings.

The 5th Ministerial Conference provides another opportunity for the WHO CEHAPE Youth Network to participate at an international gathering. We will meet again with Ministers, senior ministerial officials and other key organisations in Europe, and ensure our voices are heard on matters that have a direct bearing on our health now and in the future. We will inherit the results of the decisions taken at the conference and so we want a say in what is decided.

Towards to Parma. Youth Preparatory Meeting, Brussels, 8-10th of January 2010

Young people from seventeen countries of the World Health Organization’s European Region met in Brussels in January to build capacity for youth involvement in the upcoming WHO Environment and health conference.

Twenty youth representatives met in the HEAL offices in early January for a preparatory seminar in the run up to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health to be hosted by the Italian Ministry of Health in Parma, 10-12th of March 2010. This Ministerial will discuss progress towards the achievement of the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan (CEHAPE).

Since the 2004 Ministerial, young people have been officially part of the WHO CEHAPE process. The two and half day seminar in Brussels was organised by the CEHAPE youth representatives, and facilitated by the European Youth Forum. Bringing together this diverse mix of young people enabled them to discuss the draft text of the Declaration that focused on children’s environmental health and to brainstorm on the questions they could be ask Ministers during the CEHAPE Good Practice Award and panel discussion on March 11 in Parma.. The event was organised with financial support of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO)and logistical and technical support by Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL).

This workshop resulted in increased capacity of this core WHO CEHAPE Youth Network, who will be coming to Parma to help organise and foster the youth involvement in the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Parma in March 2010.