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National Level Policies

The National Level Policies section of the portal provides an overview of
the actual situation concerning actions to tackle health inequalities in the
different European countries.

This part of the portal is currently being developed, the information for the remaining countries will continuously be completed.

In addition to the national level portraits of the individual countries the
overview analysis has been conducted and its initial results have been
published in EuroHealth magazine (EuroHealth, 11:2 p.24).

Download the final 'Closing the Gap' publication: Taking Action on Health Equity.

This publication contains summaries of what each of the 21 ´Closing the Gap´ partners are doing to address health inequalities in their countries, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of this 3-year initiative.

Results of the same country

List all good practice projects of the actual country.

You are here: > National Level Policies > Estonia > Policies, Strategies and other Documents > Driven by health sector

Policies and Strategies that are Driven by the Health Sector

In Estonia, there is no Ministry of Health. Issues related to health are under the Ministry of Social Affairs.

The work of the Ministry of Social Affairs includes the drafting and implementation of plans to resolve state social issues, the management of public health protection and medical care, employment, the labour market and working environment, social security, social insurance and social welfare, promotion of gender equality, and the preparation of corresponding draft legislation.

The Ministry of Social Affairs is currently developing a National Population Health Plan for 2008-2015 with five priorities amongst whom one is ‘to strengthen social cohesion and decrease health related inequalities’. Estonia has become a party to several international conventions governing the area of equality.

The National Institute for Health Development (NIHD) which is responsible for coordinating the implementation of all national health related strategies has elaborated a list of priority actions and activities for the institute and its partners to reduce social inequalities in health. These priorities are in line with the national public health priorities and planned activities. These priorities include:

• To improve awareness of health inequalities (to develop an evidence base, to strengthen expert knowledge and involve the media);
• To develop and implement measures and programmes in order to reduce health related inequalities (development of health promotion programmes targeting disadvantaged sections of the population, to guarantee access to effective health and preventive services for vulnerable groups and to develop a database on effective interventions);
• To improve cooperation with other sectors (in which the health sectors will play a leadership role).
• To promote regional development (and improve the capacity to plan and implement health promotion activities).

There are activities which focus on specific target groups within different strategies. For example, counselling and public health services for people without health insurance and low threshold centres with services for drug addicts and people involved in prostitution. Further information available at http://www.tai.ee