Prospects for change: localizing global ambitions to country contexts

The WHO Regional Office for Europe initiated the cultural contexts of health and well-being (CCH) project in 2015 to acknowledge the critical role played by cultural contexts (including value systems, traditions and beliefs) in health, and to integrate a CCH approach into public health policy-making.

The fifth meeting of the expert group of the CCH project was held in June 2019 at the Regional Office in Copenhagen, Denmark, to discuss the project’s next five-year strategic plan, explore ways to strengthen dissemination, outreach and knowledge-translation activities, and gather technical input on upcoming research publications. Key to the upcoming strategizing work of the CCH project will be the identification of priority policy levels (local, national, regional, global) to maximize impact, given the project’s scope and resources. This report outlines the recommendations made at the fifth meeting of the expert group.