10th Global Conference on Health Promotion: Health Promotion for Well-being, Equity and Sustainable Development

Health Promotion for Well-being, Equity and Sustainable Development

On 13-15 December 2021 WHO will hold the 10th Global Conference on Health Promotion with the support of Finland, the United Arab Emirates, UN agencies and partners. 

The conference will be organized to address how health promotion can advance well-being. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Health promotion is about creating the conditions and healthy environments for people where they live, work, age and play. Well-being is a positive state experienced by individuals and societies and a resource for daily life, determined by social, economic and environmental conditions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly revealed the dangers for the world if health is not considered in all policies. Moving forward, there is a need for resilient societies that are better able to address health risks stemming from decisions in non-health sectors.

At the same time, it is clear that the primacy of economic growth is not the best possible marker to foster overall development. Thus, the concept of well-being is increasingly used in Member States to reflect the indivisibility of sustainable development goals. As defined in the WHO Constitution, health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, WHO has never addressed the issue as a theme of a major conference.

Participants will discuss the contribution that health promotion can make to people’s and societies’ well-being. They will address such contributions with regard to key components of well-being. Discussions will be organized around broad areas of people, planet and prosperity.

The conference will offer an opportunity to present successful country examples that health promotion action has achieved regarding the shift to good governance for health and well-being; and how this contributed to overhaul public health challenges and paved the way to building forward using health promotion approaches.

At the end of the conference, participants will issue a political statement with key requirements for governments to adopt and adapt an expanded health promotion approach to advance well-being.

Goal

• Seize opportunities for health promotion to advance well-being

Key objectives of the conference

• Discuss how to expand health promotion to advance well-being and equity, building on successful evidence and experience to foster healthier populations
• Identify key realistic interventions to support the health promotion and well-being agendas in order to accelerate progress on the SDGs
• Emphasize the role of health promotion in public health emergency, preparedness, and response towards building forward healthier and fairer societies
• Explore innovative health promotion approaches to enable societies and communities to flourish

Expected Key Outcomes

• A high-level political document by participants on health promotion and well-being

Participants

• Member States: High-level policy makers and advisers at local and national levels, including representatives from health and other relevant sectors, such as education, environment, employment, agriculture, trade, transportation, housing, finance, foreign and development policy
• UN and international organizations
• Civil society
• Private sector
• International financial institutions and foundations
• Representatives from the research community: schools of public health, economics, etc.
• Members of national parliaments

Please note that information on the conference will be continuously updated.