1. Workshop on Health Statistics Context, Objectives & Organisation
Paris, 1-5 October 2012
Author: Bahjat Achikbache
Position: Key Expert for Social Statistics, Medstat III
NOM Prénom
Fonction

2. Context Medstat III programme 2010-2013
EU funded (7 millions Euros) with technical support by Eurostat
Objective: to promote the production and dissemination of quality statistics in order to support evidence-based policy-making and foster democratic development.
9 ENP-South countries (currently 8 active)
6 statistical sectors + Training & Dissemination
Social Statistics sector
Population
Education & Vocational Training
Work & Salaries
Living conditions & Communication
Gender
+ Health statistics (end 2011)
Activities: Training sessions, Workshops, TA missions, Working Groups, Publications

3. Objectives of the workshop
The main purposes of the workshop are to:
Review with the participants the status of the national Health Information Systems (HIS) in the ENP-South partner countries, based on the assessment carried out during the preparation phase;
Assess the availability and comparability of currently produced health indicators in each partner country according to the set of pre-established list of health indicators, and in line with EU health indicators;
Discuss a proposal for a list of a Regional Harmonised Health Indicators and its associated metadata, in line with a set of EU indicators on Health;
Reach consensus on the Regional Harmonised Health Indicators that would be produced by all partner countries as part of the current Regional Common Harmonised Social Indicators.

4. Preparation of the workshop
Terms of reference for the workshop are presented by the Programme to the EU (DevCo) and Eurostat for validation
Designing a proposal for establishing a list of Regional Population & Health Indicators
Designing a Questionnaire on
Organisation of National Health Information Systems
Availability of Population & Health Indicators at the national level
The answers are consolidated in 2 documents
Summary questionnaire (Doc. for session 4)
Availability (Doc. for session 12)
Designing the agenda together with
International contributors: International expert, Eurostat, OECD
National contributors: Morocco, Palestine

5. Organisation
Agenda
Part 1: Concepts & practices in the international context: Eurostat, OECD National practices & issues, special focus on Morocco & Palestine
Part 2: Review of the proposal for a Regional set of Health Indicators
Part 3: Consensus building + Perspectives beyond Medstat III
Conclusion & Evaluation
Hardware
1 PC for two participants
USB keys (working files, references)
Internet
Interpretation: English, French, Arabic
Practical information: per diem, coffee breaks, lunch breaks, belongings, time keeping

6. Expected Output The participants are expected to:
Learn about the current methodologies for collecting, disseminating, and analysing health measurements;
Better understand the production process of household-based data and administrative records, its constraints, conceptual implications, and the comparability requirements;
Identify the gap between the metadata of their national health statistics and health indicators and the most relevant international standards, in particular the statistical standards of Eurostat and of the European Union Community Health Indicators (ECHIM);
Agree on a list of regional harmonised health indicators and its associated metadata, in line with EU indicators on Health, as a sub-set of the regional harmonised social indicators that will be produced by the Medstat III programme;
Agree to advocate for the standardisation of their national health data and indicators with European recommendations, and to promote the dissemination of comparable indicators.

7. Follow-up
TA missions for finalising Regional Harmonised Health Indicators
Final workshop on Social Statistics: May 2013
Publication: Compendium of Regional Harmonised Social Indicators (data & metadata)
Future support by the EU & Eurostat:
Data collection
Technical Assistance (TAIEX)
Twinning Projects
Bilateral projects in the Health sector (EU Delegations)
Workshop material on CIRCA

8. Thank you for your active participation