BiH: Healthy Communities in BiH

• Entity and cantonal Ministries of Health, Ministries of Education and Public Health Institutes 
• Entity Associations of Municpalities and Cities 
• 21 Municipalities and local communities 
• 21 Primary Health Care Centres 
• NGOs, Media, Schools, private sector 
• Entity Health Insurance Funds 

Approx. 1 mio citizens in 21 municipalities will directly benefit of health promotion and prevention services, incl. the socially excluded such as the elderly, Roma women and youth living in rural areas.

Expected results:  

• Citizens, with special attention to the socially excluded, are aware of their own influence on health and are practicing healthier lifestyles. 
• Integrated responses to NCDs (detection, screening, and treatment) are successfully established in 21 municipalities (out of 145). 
• Health councils, which care about the health and well-being of citizens and influence local health policy and strategies, are strengthened in 21 municipalities. 
• Evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention programs are implemented and evaluated in 21 municipalities with the support of NGOs, media, schools and private sector. 
• Health and non-health authorities introduce sustainable health promotion and disease prevention services. 
• Health promotion and disease prevention units are in place and operational in 21 municipalities. 
• Improved health promotion and disease prevention services at the primary healthcare level are recognized and paid for by financing institutions. 
• Capacities of public health institutes in the field of health promotion and disease prevention (including for no smoking campaigns) are strengthened. 
• Preventive programs (including sexual reporductive and mental health) that promote healthy lifestyles are implemented in educational and preschool institutions. 

Results from previous phases:  

• NCDs account for 90% of the country’s annual deaths and dominate the overall burden of disease and disability. 
• NCDs are caused by well-defined behavioural risk factors (tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivtiy, harmful use of alcohol). 
• Smoking contributes heavily to poor health as nearly 38% of adults smoke (25.1% in EU). 
• The health sector is inefficient and mainly focused on expensive curative services, largely lacking preventive and promotional activities and services. 
• The treatment of the most common NCDs (cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory diseases) burdens the health system with high direct costs both for inpatient care and outpatient medicines.