Twice a year the members of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health gather in plenary meeting. This is the opportunity to set goals for cooperation through the elaboration of a joint work programme and to evaluate progress every six months.
On the occasion of the Spring 2018 Committees’ plenaries in Arad, AER members identified joint actions they wanted to implement with fellow regions. A year later it is time to evaluate progress, celebrate achievements and share experiences!
Evaluating progress
During the elaboration of the work programme in Arad, planned activities were organised in 3 categories:
Projects
Good practice sharing
Lobbying
The below progress report was compiled for the spring 2019 plenary meeting in Örebro. It gives an overview of the situation, 1 year after the adoption of the work programme.
Projects
SCIROCCO Exchange project – Personalised knowledge transfer and access to tailored evidence-based assets on integrated care: ongoing
The SCIROCCO Exchange project, under the 3rd Health Programme, is based on the SCIROCCO project, which has resulted in the development of an online self-assessment tool for integrated care. The project will run from end 2018 to end 2020. It will support regions, mainly health and social care authorities for the adoption and the scaling-up of integrated care. The maturity matrix, at the core of the project, offers a tool for regions to better deliver integrated care for their citizens while at the same time empowering citizens. With this tool regions can assess their current status, revealing areas of strengths and also gaps in their capability managing the many activities needed in order to deliver integrated care.
The lead partner is the Scottish Government Health Agency Service, a new AER member. The consortium is composed by 14 organisations.
AER is leading the Working Package on knowledge transfer, helping the regions in preparing the local environment for implementation and scaling-up integrated care.
Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite! project: ongoing
The project will launch an integrated campaign “Together for Cohesion: let’s rEUnite!” with ongoing press functions and an activity mix which will allow us to achieve indirect and direct reach of the target audience.
The campaign centers on the stories of locals in regions in each of the five selected countries (Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Italy and Spain), as a highly-relatable focal points to convey the positive impact of Cohesion policy in people’s everyday lives.
The project is led by AER with the international communication agency MC Group (DE). The application was submitted to the DG Regio on the media calls for proposals.
The project is part of AER’s work on Cohesion Policy.
AMiD project for the inclusion of migrants with disabilities: ongoing
This project is led by the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities and aims to improve the access to services for migrants with disabilities. AER is a partner and Valencia, Timis and Värmland are all members of the Advisory Board. The AMiD project will provide opportunities for experience sharing and capacity building in this area for all AER members.
Silver Economy Awards (SEED): finished
The Silver Economy Awards aim to catalyse a sustainable European digital Silver Economy movement by promoting and rewarding innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for over 50s. The Awards are an opportunity to raise awareness around the lesser-known notion of the Silver Economy. They illustrate the breadth of the consumer markets and the public spending involved and the size of the opportunities available for entrepreneurs, investors, public authorities and civil society.
Last year the Silver Economy Awards replaced the traditional AER Regional Innovation Award. The first Awards Ceremony took place on May 2018 in Brussels.
SEED is a two-year project: 10/2016 to 09/2018.
After two years of dedicated work, the SEED project has met its objectives and is wrapping up its activities.
Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA): finished
The MOCHA team is led by the Imperial College London and involves 19 scientific partners from ten European countries and 30 country agents from each European Member State and EEA country. MOCHA appraises the differing models of child health that are used across Europe. The project identified gaps in knowledge, on surveillance of children’s primary care and children’s specific needs in primary care, lack of coordination of care, models of care that are not based on current child health epidemiology, and low prioritisation of children’s needs in e-health strategies. AER is a member of the Advisory Board. AER is benefitting from the connection with the MOCHA experts, which have been invited at AER events (workshop on health innovation ecosystems in Izmir, workshop on social capital for integrated care in Norrbotten) and also shared expertise and advice for the development of the project on youth mental health led by Catalonia and Norrbotten. The project is now in the final year where results will be published. The final conference took place on 15-16 November in The Hague.
Event: EU funding for Croatian & Albanian regions: finished
The event on EU funding for Croatian regions, hosted by Varaždin (HR) and Committee 3 President Radimir Čačić, and the event on EU funding for Albanian regions, hosted by Korcë (AL) and MEG member Ana Verushi brought together about 70 participants, both members and non members of AER to:
-hear about AER’s activities
-learn more on AER services for projects and services
-obtain information on the areas of cooperation with EU
-get a relevant update on the current and forthcoming EU funding opportunities
-become aware of the successful experiences of project applicants
HOME4LIFE – Certified smart and integrated living environments for ageing well: pending approval
AER joined this project as supporting partner, upon the request of AGE Platform which is partner in the consortium. No budget or specific tasks assigned.
This project has been submitted within Horizon 2020 – CSA on “Supporting investment in smart living environments for ageing well through certification” and aims at the development of a European certification scheme fostering safe investments and supporting physical and technological retrofitting for what concerns age-friendly environments and accomodation.
The results of the evaluation should be known in 2018.
INTEGRATE PERMED project – The inter-regional linking infrastructure for implementation in personalised medicine:project rejected
The INTEGRATE PERMED has been submitted under the Horizon 2020 Programme. It aims at linking the efforts in personalised medicine across European Regions by mapping them and then exchange of experiences between selected regions. The project will focus on breast cancer as a launching pathology to maintain focus. After validation, the approach will be replicated to other pathologies.
PATHWAY project – Pathway to social entrepreneurship: project rejected
The PATHWAY project, under the Erasmus+ Programme, aims at providing learners with a training programme which meet their needs in the sector of social entrepreneurship. It also aims to raise awareness on the role social entrepreneurship can play in local development, fostering also be the establishment of links and cooperation between different stakeholders.
The multiplier event will be a collateral activity of the AER Summer Academy
Submitted within the Erasmus+ Programme, the Social Entrepreneurship Key competences (SEK) project strives for providing learners with specialized training in the sector of social entrepreneurship with a special focus on tourism.
Social Entrepreneur Key competencies – SEK project: project rejected
Within this project, AER is in charge of organising an international information day, which will be the opportunity to share the project outcomes and to foster networking. AER is also in charge of a training session to test training course for social entrepreneurs. On top of that, AER will perform advocacy work in order to raise the attention on the project findings at regional and EU level.
The activities realised by the AER will take place in the scope of the Eurodyssey and the AER Youth Regional Network.
PIKTOGRAMA project – Visual thinking for social innovation: project rejected
PIKTOGRAMA is a project submitted within Erasmus+ Programme. It focuses on design thinking approach as a method to empower non-profit organisation and implement original visual thinking tools to face new EU societal challenges (e.g. climate change). The project aims at raising awareness on this approach and the advantages it has in the social innovation context as well as stimulating its use by training the youths.
The project will provide regions with recommendations regarding design thinking, which can be an interesting method for non-profit organisations to approach social challenges.
The multiplier event will be a collateral activity within the Youth Regional Network General Assembly, thus creating synergies between AER programmes and the project.
Good Practice Sharing
Equal access to healthcare: ongoing
The AER Group on Equal Opportunities has identified equal access to health as the main topic to be addressed in Committee 2. This includes:
-vulnerable groups: meet them where they are & help them
– exchange good practices on reducing barriers to care & access to
Autumn Plenary, Vojvodina: finished
The 2018 Autumn Committee Plenaries were hosted by the region of Vojvodina in Serbia from 25 – 27 September 2018. A detailed recap of all the meetings that took place is available here.
Breakfast Briefing on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children: finished
Committee 2 members decided to share experiences on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children. In this context a Breakfast Briefing was organised on welcoming unaccompanied migrant children in Novi Sad on 27 September 2018, which was led by the European Programme for Integration and Migration, an initiative of currently 25 private foundations, which has the goal of strengthening the role played by civil society in advocating for constructive approaches to migration in Europe.
A background article on youth on the move was published by the AER Secretariat.
Plenary meeting: Committee for Social Policy and Public Health: finished
On the occasion of the 2018 Autumn the Committees Plenary meetings in Vojvodina, the Committee on Social Policy and Public Health members said farewell to Agneta Granström, Vice President of the Committee and Chair of the AER e-Health network. Albert Castellanos, Catalonia (ES) was elected Vice-President for Health Innovation, other positions were left open for future candidacies.
On the occasion of Committee 2 plenary meeting in Novi Sad, Vojvodina (RS), members decide to focus on social entrepreneurship & inclusion
Good practices from Umbria (IT) and Maramures (RO) were presented.
Panel discussion at the Vojvodina plenaries on Open data for regional development: finished
On the occasion of the Autumn plenaries in Vojvodina, the panel discussion “Open data for regional development: governance, start-ups and innovation” took place.
The discussion focused on how public institutions collect and generate enormous quantities of data in areas as varied as unemployment, air pollution, hospital consultations etc and how this data can best be re-used to create or improve both public and private services. There is a need to change the political perception of Open Data and instead view it as opportunity for policy-making.
Meeting of the Working Group for Equal Opportunities: finished
The AER Group on Equal opportunities has regular phone meetings and met as well in Novi Sad to discuss the development of a Code of Conduct for AER.
Mutual learning event on the Sharing Economy: finished
Each year Brussels Capital proposes a mutual learning event on a current and transversal topic. On December 4th 2018, Brussels Capital organised a mutual learning event on the sharing Economy together with Catalonia, in Brussels, Brussels Capital Region (BE). This event organised upon the invitation of Committee 1 President Jean Luc Vanraes, aimed to gather experiences from all three AER Committees and regions were welcome to share inputs and regional examples.
The event brought together policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics and representatives of the third sector for vivid exchanges. A follow up article with updates on what happened in Brussels was published.
International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions: finished
The three AER committees and the AER Task Force on Migration worked closely together to develop messaging ahead of the International Migrants Day: Promoting Diversity in Regions event in Barcelona on Tuesday 18 December 2018.
Participants shared their experiences and good practices in diversity management at regional level, including examples of policies, programmes and projects promoting inclusion, participation in civic, economic and political life, positive intercultural interaction and the sense of belonging.
AER e-health network activities: planned
The AER e-health network has achieved the objectives it had set at its creation. The plenary meeting in Arad was the opportunity to set new objectives. These include good practice sharing on
-risks of digital exclusion
-business models
-data protection, profiling & mass surveillance
-Artificial intelligence, bots
After the 2018 Spring plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. This was mainly due to the fact the AER e-health network didn’t have a chair to give impulse to its activities. At the Spring 2019 Committee 2 plenary meeting, members will elect a new chair and get an opportunity to define new actions they would like to implement jointly.
Leadership programme for policymakers on e-health, integrated care systems and health innovation: cancelled
The AER e-health network wants to share good practices on leadership for the deployment of integrated care systems. After the 2018 Spring plenaries, no concrete initiatives were identified. New opportunities may arise with the implementation of the Scirocco Exchange knowledge hub which will be developed and will also provide tools to improve readiness to change, leadership and governance in general.
Advocacy/ Lobbying
Cohesion Policy Activities: ongoing
Members agreed in September 2018 that the Task Force on Cohesion will now
– Convene joint advocacy: Bureau Members adopted an updated position on the European
– Advocate towards the European Union and
– Work in alliance with other relevant stakeholders and European associations
Flevoland (NL) is coordinating the implementation of the action and the cohesion policy task force help implement the action.
AER Bureau Task Forces
The 2018 Spring Bureau established the creation of Task Forces on dedicated topics. These Task Forces will gather examples, identify and formulate policy messages which will be brought together in position papers which will then be used for advocacy. Members who would like to contribute to one of the below Task Forces should contact AER Coordinator for Advocacy & Institutionnal Relations Vania Freitas
-Task Force on Food
-Task force on Digitalisation
-Task Force on Migration
-Task Force on Social Innovation
Joint initiatives for advocacy
Member regions can decide to initiate joint actions and find partners among AER members. Regions can get support from the Secretariat to connect with other regions, get an overview of existing legal framework and identify relevant actions, target institutions. The AER Secretariat will also organise Breakfast Briefings to help regions organise their advocacy activities.
The Committees’ work programmes and the AER action Plan
The developement of the Action Plan is a collective process to enable all participants to specify needs and decide to initiate activities which add value for their region. The principle is the following: as long as an action fits with the AER values, is in line with the AER priorities and has support from other regions, it can be included in the Committees work programmes. The work programmes are developped in Spring each year.
The AER action plan is the consolidation of the three Committees’ work programmes with all other activities led by the Bureau and the Executive Board. It is adopted at the General Assembly.
Members can propose new joint initiatives at any time during the year, these are then approved by the Executive Board and included in the Committees work programmes and the AER action plan.
Photo by sergee bee on Unsplash
