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.

Enhanced Well-being

WHO supports countries’ efforts towards achieving the SDGs on promoting health and well-being across life through equitable policies and programmes. Steady and sustainable progress can only be achieved through policy coherence, and active citizen and societal engagement and effective partnership.

The Unit endeavours to promote good governance for health and well-being and create the conditions for people to live healthier lives at national and local levels. Acknowledging the role of non-health sectors in creating the conditions for health and well-being, the Unit promotes a whole-of-government and society approach and leads the work on healthy settings including healthy cities, health promoting schools as well as community engagement and health literacy in line with the Shanghai Declaration on promoting health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13).

The Unit produces global policy level and programme guidance to promote health and well-being. It also provides technical assistance and capacity building to support actions at country level. Through strategic communication and advocacy, the Unit informs and supports research for moving forward public health initiatives at country level.

Selected publications

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Health Promotion Glossary of Terms 2021

This version of the glossary is substantially changed from the original. Some terms have been omitted, many have been modified in light of practical experiences...

Making every school a health-promoting school – Global standards and indicators

No education system is effective unless it promotes the health and well-being of its students, staff and community. These strong links have never been...

Community engagement: a health promotion guide for universal health coverage in the hands of the people 

WHO has defined community engagement as “a process of developing relationships that enable stakeholders to work together to address health-related...

Healthy Cities Effective Approach to a Changing World

The Healthy Cities initiative was conceived with the goal of placing health high on the social and political agenda of cities by promoting health, equity...

Highlight

The Charter builds on the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and the legacy of nine global conferences on health promotion. It highlights the need for...

Draft decision

WHA 76 | Achieving well-being: A global framework for integrating well-being into public health utilizing a health promotion approach
In accordance with resolution WHA75.19 and as described in document EB152/20, the draft global framework for integrating well-being into public health...

Global health promotion conferences

Multimedia

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