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Looking back
to Ottawa, this conference reflected on what has been learned
about effective health promotion, to re-examine the determinants
of health, and to identify the directions and strategies that
must be adopted to address the challenges of promoting health
in the 21st century.
Health
promotion is a key investment
Health is a basic human right and is essential for social
and economic development. Increasingly, health promotion is
being recognised as an essential element of health development.
It is a process of enabling people to increase control over,
and to improve, their health.
Health promotion,
through investment and action, has a marked impact on the
determinants of health so as to create the greatest health
gain for people, to contribute significantly to the reduction
of inequities in health, to further human rights, and to build
social capital. The ultimate goal is to increase health expectancy,
and to narrow the gap in health expectancy between countries
and groups.
It identified
a range of issues that were impacting on the determinants
of health, and argued that health promotion was making a difference
as a practical approach to achieving greater equity in health.
In this respect the conference again reaffirmed the five strategies
set out in the Ottawa charter. It also stated that there was
now clear evidence that:
- comprehensive
approaches to health development are the most effective;
- particular
settings offer practical opportunities for the implementation
of comprehensive strategies. These include mega-cities,
islands, cities, municipalities, local communities, markets,
schools, the workplace and health care facilities;
- participation
is essential to sustain efforts;
- health learning
fosters participation. These strategies are core elements
of health promotion and are relevant for all countries.
It then set out
its priorities for health promotion in the 21st century
1. promote social responsibility for health
2. increase investments for health development
3. consolidate and expand partnerships for health
4. increase community capacity and empower the individual
5. secure an infrastructure for health promotion
As part of this
it stated that "settings for health" represent the organisational
base of the infrastructure required for health promotion.
The conference
call for action said that in order to speed progress towards
global health promotion, participants should endorse the formation
of a global health promotion alliance. The goal of this alliance
is to advance the priorities for action in health promotion
set out in the declaration.
Further information on the 1997 4th international conference on health promotion in Jakarta can be viewed here
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