The Ottawa Charter, a 'Gold Standard' for Health Promotion?

The World Health Organization created the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion that aimed at “achieving health for all by 2000 and beyond” (WHO, 1986, p. 1). The charter articulates five key strategies towards health promotion and represents the core principles of societal responsibility, human rights, health equity, and social justice. According to Thompson et al. (2018), the charter is widely considered a foundational health promotion document; to this day, it is viewed as a ‘gold standard’ for health promoters worldwide.

Since the inception of the Ottawa Charter in 1986, the World Health Organization has championed numerous global conferences. These conferences and their resulting contributions to health promotion are helping to refine, adapt, and strengthen health promotion across the world (Nutbeam et al., 2021). The World Health Organization’s most recent global health promotion conference took place in 2016. The conference led to the endorsement and release of the Shanghai Declaration (WHO, 2016). Health promotion priorities outlined in the declaration include advocating for improved health governance, prioritizing the development of healthy cities, and strengthening health literacy among populations across the globe.

The Ottawa Charter has and continues to influence my practice in the health sector to this day. Working as a Dietitian at the beginning of my career, the charter strategy ‘Develop Personal Skills’ influenced my practice. Rather than apply a prescriptive approach to working with individual clients and groups, I strived to support people to make healthy choices towards their lives (WHO, 1986). Had I not completed post-secondary education in a health-related discipline I do not think I would have known about the Ottawa Charter. More recently, I was involved in an educational campaign to improve the general public’s awareness and effective utilization of the primary care system. The initiative was a collaboration between community partners whereby the public health authority I work for partnered with local First Nations communities, city council, as well as community representatives. In addition to improving primary and acute care utilization in the community, the initiative led to the establishment of positive working relationships between the local health authority and community partners. Upon reflection, I believe the initiative is a good example of a community taking health promotion action.

References:

Thomas, S., & Daube, M. (2023). New times, new challenges for health promotion. Health promotion international, 38(1), daad012. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daad012

Thompson, S. R., Watson, M. C., & Tilford, S. (2017). The Ottawa Charter 30 years on: still an important standard for health promotion. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 56(2), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2017.1415765

Nutbeam, D., Corbin, J. H., & Lin, V. (2021). The continuing evolution of health promotion. Health promotion international, 36(Supplement_1), i1–i3. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daab150

World Health Organization. (1986). Ottawa charter for health promotion, 1986 (No. WHO/EURO: 1986-4044-43803-61677). World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/services/health-promotion/population-health/ottawa-charter-health-promotion-international-conference-on-health-promotion/charter.pdf

World Health Organization. (2016). Shanghai declaration on promoting health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/259183/WHO-NMH-PND-17.5-eng.pdf?sequence=1