District Health Profiles for evidence-based community health promotion

A key aspect of this work has been to build capacity of the National Agency for Public Health (NAPH) at national level and across 10 pilot districts, especially in the area of epidemiological data analyses and health planning. Thus, the Healthy Life project facilitated the data management process for a core set of health profile indicators and health, social and environmental data were collected across sectors.  

In addition, to improve inter-sectorality, the functionality of the NAPH's decentralised structures District Public Health Councils (DPHC) were assessed (in collaboration with Slovenian experts of the WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development. As a result, over 200 people representatives of Local Public Administrations (Mayors, specialists from health, social, educational, cultural and sports domain), Governmental decentralized services (police, food safety, ecology, emergency and other services) were trained on WHO "Healthy Communities" and "Health in All Policies" approaches in collaboration with the Moldovan School of Management in Public Health.

Being a critical component of health planning, the resulting health profiles for 10 pilot districts are used to raise awareness of Local Public Authorities and local stakeholders, and to stimulate action plans for health promotion and non-communicable disease prevention and control. These local level actions which have a focus on promoting physical activities, cooking and nutrition are now being co-funded through a small grants scheme.