Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety 15 November 2007, Vilnius, Lithuania Suvi Lehtinen

Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety (BSN), Nov. 1995─ Network of OH&S Institutes of the 10 Baltic Sea countries Idea proposed in the WHO Consultation on Development of OHS in the Baltic States, Copenhagen Network established later in 1996, three Baltic States and four Nordic Countries, and slightly later Germany, Poland and the Russian Federation were invited to join Aims bringing essential country information to everybody's reach a forum for transmitting and developing good practices disseminating information on training events encouraging the countries to develop national networking arrangements offer a framework and stimulation for joint bilateral and multilateral projects S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

BSN website S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

Social capital Concept of social capital ─ Robert Putnam Networking of friends, neighbours, social communities, civic society Norms of reciprocity Participation Trust Added value to activities S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

Networking focal points Networking within BSN peer-to-peer voluntary participation facilitator needed equal information-oriented sharing information learning from others long-term collaboration trust win-win-win-situation basis for joint projects Networking focal points S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

BSN – A joint forum for exchange of information and learning Concentrating on joint themes Receiving information Mixed participation among OSH experts and authorities Social communication Growing trust Platform for joint projects S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

Accomplishments A network of OSH experts in the sub-region has been working for 12 years ─ Tradition of collaboration have been established OSH websites were created in the three Baltic States stimulated by BSN ─ they paved the way for joining the electronic EU Networks Smoke-free workplaces as a topic in 2004 – an opportunity for WHO/EURO to inform about and discuss the issue and the guideline produced Learning from others obvious Making a situation analysis of OSH in the countries (Questionnaire survey) Meeting in Riga on 29–30 March 2007 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland) SIHLWA meeting, May 2007 Annual Meeting of the BSN, 30–31 October 2007 Identifying the OSH priorities Preparing a Policy Paper for November 2007 PAC discussion S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

Topics discussed in Annual Meetings of BSN in 1996–2007 OHS OH&S assessment – indicators Notification and registration of ODs and accidents Economic appraisal in OH&S Education and training in OH&S Twinning projects E-learning Country profiles in OH&S BOHS Networking in agriculture Health risks of environmental tobacco smoke Psychosocial factors and stress Collaboration with other networks etc. S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

ILO Framework Convention ILO Framework Convention was approved at ILC 2006 Preparation of a National Profile on OSH Preparation of a National Programme on OSH http://www.stm.fi/Resource.phx/publishing/store/2006/05/aa1155885585766/passthru.pdf http://www.stm.fi/Resource.phx/eng/subjt/safet/publi/publicateng.htx.i1229.pdf S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

Basic Occupational Health Services 13th Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health, 2003 ICOH, WHO, ILO – development of Basic Occupational Health Services 2005, revised in September 2007 S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007

BSN – a platform to implement A well-functioning network offers a forum for implementation ─ it should be fully utilized Several relevant topics have been discussed and analysed in earlier meetings of BSN Developing the situation analysis reports into National OSH Profiles and Programmes Basic Occupational Health Services Discussions and preparations for Joint Activities in OSH in Selected Sectors Funding possibilities – NDPHS, EU, others Working together – 1 + 1 + 1 10! S. Lehtinen / 15.11.2007