Raised blood pressure prevalence (%)

The European Programme of Work, 2020–2025 – “United Action for Better Health in Europe” (EPW), was adopted by the 70th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC70) (EUR/RC70/11 Rev.4). The EPW shapes the Region’s contribution to the Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 13) in its three interconnected strategic priorities: 
• Moving towards universal health coverage (UHC)  

• Ensuring healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages. 

In the European Region, The EPW is the leading policy framework to steer and coordinate action towards building back better after the COVID-19 crisis. It supports countries in their commitments to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All. It puts particular focus on supporting capacities for effective health leadership and engagement with other policy sectors.
4 flagship initiatives

• The Mental Health Coalition

• Empowerment through Digital Health

• The European Immunization Agenda 2030

• Healthier behaviours: incorporating behavioural and cultural insights

The EPW measurement framework includes 26 indicator areas of high importance to monitor progress towards leaving no one behind. It encompasses a subset of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets and outcome indicators included in the GPW13 WHO Impact Framework as a basis. The indicators selected from this framework are then complemented with additional indicators found in other frameworks throughout the European Region. It also uses a concrete milestone to be achieved by 2025, to ensure that the measurement framework is well aligned with the European context. 

The EPW measurement framework indicators focus on two major issues of COVID-19 and inequity. These indicators were chosen based on predetermined criteria, to ensure that they are appropriate, feasible and aligned with existing global or regional strategies or strategies under development. Wherever possible, the EPW measurement framework uses indicators that are informative for multiple core priorities and flagship initiatives (for example, an indicator on premature noncommunicable disease mortality serves both the universal health coverage and healthier populations core priorities). At a minimum, the EPW measurement framework aims to disaggregate relevant indicators by sex and age. Whenever feasible, additional disaggregation, such as by socioeconomic status and geographical levels, is planned.