9.C. Round table: The Global Oral Health Action Plan – Integrating Oral Health into the global health agenda
Authors:   Organised by: EUPHA-OH, -GH,   Chair persons: Pauline Vassallo (Malta), Elena Petelos (EUPHA-HTA, EUPHA-GH)
Published: October 2024

Oral diseases (OD) are a global public health problem affecting 3.5 billion people, with a global prevalence of 45%, higher than the prevalence of any other non-communicable disease (NCD). Recognizing the global public health importance, the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) (May 2023) adopted the WHO’s Global Oral Health Action Plan (GOHAP) 2023-2030; a crucial step to bring momentum and mobilise all actors to address the burden of OD and common risk factors for all NCDs, while integrating oral health (OH) as part of general health and promoting cross-sectoral cooperation on good OH worldwide to reach UHC. Drawing insights from other successful global health action plans, this roundtable (RT) will explore key lessons learned in implementing effective strategies to improve OH outcomes at European and global levels, ensuring access to quality care for all.

The objectives of the RT are: 1.To present the GOHAP 2023-2030, incl. challenges and opportunities; 2. To draw insights from other global health action plans; 3. To present good examples of civil society organization (CSO) actions supporting the GOHAP’s implementation - The Manifesto of the Platform for Better Oral Health, calling for policy actions by EU policymakers; 4. To present findings from the EU DELIVER (DELiberative ImproVEment of oRal care quality) and PRUDENT projects, funded by the European Commission, aiming to provide and implement a blueprint model for ensuring access to quality OH care for all; 5. To inform follow-up actions and collaboration across EUPHA sections, its strategy, as well as that of European Member States (MS), CSOs and other institutional partners, and to raise awareness across the European public and global health communities.

The structure of the RT will include brief interactive presentations with real-time polling to maximize participant engagement and to consolidate key messages to present at the end of the session, incl. to inform follow-up actions across EUPHA. The first brief presentation on GOHAP will highlight the aims and evidence-informed actions, followed by: 1. Insights from other global health action plans, exploring lessons learned in implementing effective strategies, examining the approaches, opportunities, challenges and outcomes; 2. Good examples of actions taken by CSOs; 3. Preliminary findings from the EU DELIVER and EU PRUDENT will be presented, incl. key co-creation tools of deliberative dialogues and the development of a set of quality indicators for applicability on the practice, community and policy levels.

Guided discussion will focus on opportunities and challenges in GOHAP implementation, with the targeted questions to panellists on: What can countries learn from other global health action plans? What should be the priorities of EU MS? What is the role the public health community can play? What are key steps needed to eliminate common NCD risk factors to drastically reduce the prevalence and burden of ODs?

Key messages

• There is an urgent need in the global and public health communities to better understand the processes involved in implementing the GOHAP, incl. challenges and opportunities.

• Interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration is key to address the common risk factors of NCDs, to inform concerted action and evidence-informed policymaking to improve oral health care.

Speakers/Panelists

Pauline Vassallo

European Association of Dental Public Health, Valletta, Malta

Benoit Varenne

Dental Officer, Prevention of Non Communicable Disease Department, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland

Dympna Kavanagh

Chief Dental Officer, Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe, Dublin, Ireland

Neville Calleja

Department of Health Information and Research, G’Mangia, Malta