The Centre for Health and Development Murska Sobota from the Pomurje Region (Slovenia), a member of the Regions for Health Network (RHN) and a WHO collaborating centre, organized a Summer school on intersectoral action for health equity and well-being. The summer school took place in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, between 6-7 July 2016, and was open to international participants around the world.

This year the focus was on advocacy and translation of evidence for different audiences in order to initiate and steer the intersectoral action for health equity and well-being. Particular attention was devoted to health information and communication of data, for example on how data profiling and social marketing campaigns could support health equity and poverty reduction strategies, how to communicate risks and on how to communicate data for media.

The first day was dedicated to the joint event of EuroHealthNet, Summer School 2016 and NIJZ, as we jointly celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Ottawa Declaration with the purpose of networking, sharing and exchanging knowledge, experience and good practices of various experts, networks and institutions.

On the second day (July 7 2016), we continued to show various ways of communication with different target groups, and through practical work in smaller groups, we also tried to show various approaches to communication. All three groups also presented their work to other participants.

The goal of the initiative is the development of cross-sectoral approaches for health and development, increasing the capacity to understand and measure health inequalities, and the capacity to reduce health inequalities and take action in the field of social determinants of health.

The objectives of this year’s summer school were:

• Providing learning exchange about effective advocacy for intersectoral action for health equity and well-being.
• Discussing the role of different participles and organization in the advocacy process.
• Providing opportunities for exchange of know-how, good practices and innovative approaches in developing and translating evidence for different audiences.