Health Promotion Forum

Advocacy for health promotion

Moderators: Prof Walter Ricciardi, President, World Federation of Public Health Associations & Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Italy and Dr Lucy Anne Parker, Lecturer, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Spain

Speakers

• Professor Dais Gonçalves Rocha, female, University of Brasília and Abrasco's Health Promotion WG, Brazil
• Assistant Professor Yassen Tcholakov, male, McGill University, Canada
• Dr Kathryn Ashton, Principal Health Impact Assessment Development Officer, WHO, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) on Investment for Health and Well-being, Cardiff, UK

Organized by the World Federation of Public Health Associations

This session presents actual practices by different NGOs for the promotion of health and well-being. It aims to highlight the achievements and challenges in advocating for and enabling people to increase their control over health and improvement of health. Three experiences will be discussed. First, the panel will present a case study, led by public health advocates from the UK, about the enabling capacity of the WHO CC’s Guide on Investment for Health and Well-being related to health policymaking and decision-making. Second, the Canadian author of a case study on the integration of health impacts in climate change negotiations will highlight the challenges in finding the right approach for communication with other sectors. Third, health promotion advocates from Brazil will report on the processes of building health promotion policies in two Brazilian states with participation from government officials and non-governmental organizations. From these experiences, it will be possible to better understand the success factors of health promotion advocacy, considering the central role of civil society in moving towards healthy and equitable societies.