"Health 2020 is the new health policy framework of the WHO European Region. The policy aims at significantly improving the health and well-being of populations, reducing health inequalities, strengthening public health and ensuring sustainable people-centred health systems. Health 2020 is for the whole of government and the whole of society. It envisages actions and outcomes well beyond the boundaries of the health sector and beyond the remit of the ministry of health. Health 2020 therefore proposes reaching out and working together with other ministries, departments, sectors, organizations, stakeholders and civil society organizations. Health 2020 also proposes reaching out to, and working together with, citizens, patients and consumers, providing more opportunities for empowerment. Progress towards all these goals will be achieved by policy action in four areas: investing in health through a life-course approach and empowering citizens; tackling Europe's major disease burdens of noncommunicable and communicable diseases; strengthening people-centred health systems and public health capacities, including preparedness and response capacity for dealing with emergencies; and creating supportive environments and resilient communities. This volume presents in a practical way an analysis of how to reach out and work together. It focuses and gives clear advice on intersectoral governance structures that can facilitate intersectoral action. It is hoped that the volume will help WHO Member States assess and revise their practices of intersectoral collaboration, and inspire new ways of reaching out and working together. We also hope that it will encourage the exchange of good practices between countries. The book was developed in parallel with Health 2020 and it has continuously informed the technical consultations with Member States and experts that have taken place over the last two years. It comes as part of a package of studies that has provided scientific background to the development of Health 2020, including a study on governance for health in the 21st century and a review of social determinants and the health divide, both of which also provide examples on how to implement whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches."--P. [ix].