Health Promotion
We work to enhance people’s wellbeing and reduce their health risks associated with tobacco use, alcohol consumption and physical inactivity, thereby contributing to better population health. We develop and implement cross-cutting normative, fiscal and legal measures and capacity development tools. We advance global health in health literacy, community engagement strategies and good governance for health, and foster public health action in the settings of every-day life.
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Healthy settings

Overview

"Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where they learn, work, play, and love." The Ottawa Charter, 1986

Healthy Settings, the settings-based approaches to health promotion, involve a holistic and multi-disciplinary method which integrates action across risk factors. The goal is to maximize disease prevention via a "whole system" approach. The settings approach has roots in the WHO Health for All strategy and, more specifically, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Healthy Settings key principles include community participation, partnership, empowerment and equity.

The background to healthy settings

The Healthy Settings movement came out of the WHO strategy of Health for All in 1980. The approach was more clearly laid out in the 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. These documents were important steps towards establishing the holistic and multifaceted approach embodied by Healthy Settings programmes, as well as towards the integration of health promotion and sustainable development.

Building on the Ottawa Charter, the Sundsvall Statement of 1992 called for the creation of supportive environments with a focus on settings for health. In 1997, the Jakarta Declaration emphasized the value of settings for implementing comprehensive strategies and providing an infrastructure for health promotion. Today, various settings are used to facilitate the improvement of public health throughout the world.

Definition of a setting

“The place or social context in which people engage in daily activities in which environmental, organizational, and personal factors interact to affect health and wellbeing.”

A setting is where people actively use and shape the environment; thus it is also where people create or solve problems relating to health. Settings can normally be identified as having physical boundaries, a range of people with defined roles, and an organizational structure. Examples of settings include schools, work sites, hospitals, villages and cities.

Action to promote health through different settings can take many forms. Actions often involve some level of organizational development, including changes to the physical environment or to the organizational structure, administration and management. Settings can also be used to promote health as they are vehicles to reach individuals, to gain access to services, and to synergistically bring together the interactions throughout the wider community.

Type of Health Settings

Healthy Setting approaches have been implemented many different ways in multiple areas.  A list of the different Healthy Settings can be found on the following table.

  • Healthy cities
  • Healthy villages
  • Healthy municipalities and communities
  • Health promoting schools
  • Healthy workplaces
  • Healthy markets
  • Healthy homes
  • Healthy islands
  • Healthy hospitals
  • Healthy universities
  • Healthy ageing