21 JULY 2022

A meeting was held on "Promotion of public participation initiatives in health: the role of public councils"

Deputy Minister of Health Nadir Zeynalov in his speech at the event emphasized the importance of the meeting and said that the implementation of this project is an open door to public participation: "Public participation is based on rules regulated by law and is based on communication links. Therefore, establishing communication relations with the public is both help and support for the work of state institutions." Head of USAID's "Civil Society for Transparency" (ECSOFT) project, Mohammad Guluzade, emphasized the efficient cooperation of NGOs and state institutions and gave detailed information about various events and activities held within the project.

Ziba Nabiyeva, chair of the "Women's Initiative for Development" Public Union and head of the "Promotion of public participation initiatives in health" project, said that the meeting was a clear example of joint cooperation: "The goal of this project is to promote the legal basis of public participation among health-related NGOs and health professionals and in this direction, it is strengthening their potential, promoting their representation in public councils, and preparing proposals for improving the relevant legislation. He noted that within the project, representatives of professional associations and patient organizations were contacted, their awareness on the public participation process, their interest in being represented in public councils was heard, and they were educated on this subject. At the same time, a "Public Health Cooperation Platform" group was created on the FB social network, which increases the opportunities for NGOs to get to know each other and cooperate.

At the next stage of the project, in order to evaluate the activity of public councils and the transparency of the elections, a survey was conducted among the representatives of civil society organizations and recommendations were prepared based on the results. Alimammad Nuriyev, the coordinator of the "Government-Civil Society Dialogue Platform for the Promotion of Open Government" made a broad presentation and discussed the values of public participation, its goals and forms, its application in health care, the formation of public councils, the election process, and mutually effective relations between council members and the institution, gave detailed information about its creation and other issues. At the meeting, opinions were effectively exchanged, proposals of civil society representatives were heard and questions were answered.