Children's Environmental Health: WECF calls for good project examples

Good Practice Award will be awarded during Ministerial Conference in Italy in March 2010

04.10.2009 |Olivia Radu

In 2004, Ministers of Health and Environment of countries in the European, Caucasus and Central Asian region signed the “Children Environmental and Health Action Plan for Europe” (CEHAPE). Three years later, a competition of children's environmental health projects resulted in the successful "Good Practice Awards" celebration.

The next Conference of Ministers, entitled “Protecting Children’s Health in a Changing Environment”, will award eight new good practice projects, which will be invited to present their projects at the Ministerial Conference in Italy, March 2010.

Eight awards with a value of 1,000 Euro each will be given by the ministers to the winners, at the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, 10-12 March 2010, in Parma, Italy. The travel expenses and accommodation of the eight winners will be covered by the organizers. The award and the award ceremony is sponsored by the governments of Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden and is supported by the European Commission. The project entries will be judged by an independent international jury, consisting of two experts per prize category. The jury will be composed of medical, sanitation and environmental experts, youth representatives, representatives of international organisations as well as representatives of environmental and health networks from across the 53 countries of the WHO European region.

Eligibility

Any type of organisation or group working on improving Children’s Environmental Health is entitled to enter the competition – for example schools, youth groups, local authorities, non-governmental organisations – from one of the 53 countries in the larger European, Eastern European, South-Eastern European, Caucasus and Central Asian region. The activity should either already been completed or in current operation.

Contest categories

The “good practices” should focus on one of the following eight categories:

Water and/or Sanitation (Regional Priority Goal 1 of the CEHAPE) Reducing gastrointestinal and waterborne diseases – Improving drinking water, hygiene and sanitation conditions for children.
Accidents and/or Physical Activity (Regional Priority Goal 2 of the CEHAPE) Reducing accidents injuries, trauma and obesity – Making physical environments safer and healthier for children
Indoor air and/or Outdoor air (Regional Priority Goal 3 of the CEHAPE) Reducing respiratory diseases – Improving indoor and outdoor air quality for children
Chemicals and or Radiation
(Regional Priority Goal 4 of the CEHAPE) Reducing intoxication, irreversible damage and chronic diseases – Prevent and reduce chemical and physical hazards that endanger the life and health of children
Youth participation Cooperation across generations – Involve the younger generation in the Environment & Health Process in Europe
Mobility Reduce environmental pollution, accidents and sprawl – Increase safer and healthier mobility for children
Climate protection Reduce CO2 emissions and adapt to climate change – Increase awareness of low and zero-carbon practices and the link to health, among children and youths
Schools Reduce exposure to environment and health hazards in schools and day-care centres – increase healthy and environmental practices in schools

Selection criteria

Projects will be scored 0 (inadequate) to 5 (excellent) on the basis of:

Relevance: how well the project relates to children’s environment & health in Europe
Concrete outcomes: how the project demonstrates tangible benefits to children’s environment and health
Information & awareness raising: how the project has contributed to inform and raise awareness on children’s environment and health
Partnership/Multi-sectoral approach: how well the project has able to involve other groups or bodies and other sectors
Transferability: whether the project could be “scaled up” (extended) or replicated (copied) in other places or countries
Originality: whether the project is novel and innovative
Cost-effectiveness of the project

For more information and examples of the previous CEHAPE award projects, please see the website Healthier Environments for Children

Award organizers

The contest and the awards for good practices projects for the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in Parma, will be developed jointly by Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), Health & Environmental Alliance (HEAL), ISDE Austria and European Eco Forum.

If you would like to take part in this contest you can fill in the following online forms:

For information on this award, the call of projects, the online entry form and for background information on the European Environment and Health process and the Children’s Environmental Health Action Plans as well, see

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