Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region

Description

The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) is the key independent European organisation dedicated to improving and protecting the public health by strengthening education and training of public health professionals for both practice and research.

The main functions of the Association are:

To support the professionalisation of the public health workforce in Europe, whilst respecting the diversity of national and regional contexts in which each school of public health operates, and thus:
To sustain capacity building in public health, so that it balances with national and European population health challenges and threats, and is supported by best standards of public health education and training, scientific research, and practice.

ASPHER is a membership organisation of institutions, spread across EU and wider across the WHO European Region, which are collectively concerned with the education and training, and professionalism, of those entering and working within the public health workforce. It promotes activities which foster exchange of information and best practices amongst its members in an effort to achieve high standards of public health education and training across Europe.

Key activities within climate change and health

ASPHER supports the development of climate-health education and capacity-building for the public health workforce to be key advocates and actors of climate mitigation & adaptation to improve climate change and public health interventions.
ASPHER has developed a Climate-Health Fellowship to involve young professionals and students in the advancement of climate health education. Through this work, ASPHER launched a survey to map current implementation of climate education in public health schools in the European region and climate action taken by these schools. This led to the successful selection of the ASPHER “Climate Action through public health education and training” Thematic Network proposal at the EU Health Policy Platform. The thematic network worked to produce a one-voice joint statement of European Stakeholders (with over 80 endorsements). The joint statement, “Moving towards the right to ‘health for all’ by training the public health and wider health workforce on climate change and health” has been the first successful attempt to involve the stakeholder community around this topic with the aim at creating synergy with existing policies.
ASPHER continues to advocate for climate and health through collaborative partnerships, advocacy, and development of competencies and training materials for public health.