Fast Forward Foundation: Strategic transformation to promote integrated welfare for Europe and the global community

Today in Brussels the event “Integrated Welfare – PressingFast Forward for Europe” will launch a debate on our social protections, with a comparative analysis of healthcare systems of European countries

Brussels, 25 October 2023 – Fast Forward Foundation, formerlyknown as Fondazione Farmafactoring, unveils today a strategic transformation and rebranding, undertaken with the aim to better serve Europe and the global community.
The new purpose of the Foundation – which since its 2004 creation in Italy has boasted a distinguished legacy of promoting and advancing scientific research within the European healthcare domain – is to foster the sustainable and inclusive transformation of welfare for the protection of individuals and communities.

This purpose addresses the need to integrate the fields of healthcare, supplementary social protection, and digital payments for financial inclusion to better respond to the challenges of the current historic moment.

The new brand and purpose of the Foundation are presented today in Brussels, at the event“Integrated Welfare – Pressing Fast Forward for Europe”, with a keynote speech by Mario Nava, Director General of DG Reform at the European Commission. The event features a panel discussion on integrated welfare and showcases insights from the newly released Healthcare Report “From Healthcare to Integrated Welfare: perspectives from 9 European countries”. Commissioned from Centre for Research on Health and Social Care Management (CERGAS) – SDA Bocconi, the report is a comparative analysis of healthcare systems of European countries with a focus on prevention and long-term care themes.

• Director General of DG Reform at the European Commission 0 DirectorGeneral of DG Reform at the EuropeanCommission 0 DirectorGeneral of DG Reform at the EuropeanCommission 0
• DirectorGeneral of DG Reform at the European Commission 1
• DirectorGeneral of DG Reform at the European Commission 2

Mario Nava, DirectorGeneral of DG Reform at the EuropeanCommission, stated: “Through the Technical Support Instrument the Commission supports Member States’ reforms to modernise their social and pension systems. Innovative integrated welfare approaches can help respondto the multifaceted forms of inequality or disadvantage in society.”
Livia Piermattei, President of Fast Forward Foundation, added: “Different elements of welfare interact strongly, but they are not usually managed or budgeted together. FFFoundation intends to ignite a transformation to connect these areas, find synergies and improve lives in our communities.”

To pursue these goals the Foundation has drafted a three-year Operational Plan, adopting an innovative approach to implement its initiatives, through an articulated project cycle. The first step analyzes and systematizes existingre search, and co-designs projects to address existing challenges. Based on the research output, the second phase of “in-vivo experimentation” will begin, involving pilot projects to test the proper functioning of a previously developed and validated mechanism for integrated welfare. During and after the experimentation phase, activities promoting the achieved results and raising awareness about the produced evidence will be carried out, partnering with stakeholders from different countries and backgrounds to share experiences, learn from those that were successful and improve the unsuccessful.

The Healthcare Report “From Healthcare to Integrated Welfare:perspectives from 9 European countries”
Written by SDA Bocconi Schoolof Management offers a comprehensive reflection on the topic of welfare services integration. It considers the new phase that welfaresystems of advancedcountries are entering, characterized by challenges that will have a significant impact on the needs and expectations of the population.

The objective of the report is twofold:
(i)  offer a comparative assessment of health systemsof 9 EU countries: Croatia,Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.
(ii)    provide updated reflections on future research avenues to uncover possible convergences and divergences between healthcare systems. These reflections highlight which general attributes and which more context-specific issues should be addressed to pave the way for integrated welfare systems.