Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion


The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion is the name of an international agreement signed at the First International Conference on Health Promotion, organized by the World Health Organization and held in Ottawa, Canada, in November 1986. It launched a series of actions among international organizations, national governments and local communities to achieve the goal of "Health For All" by the year 2000 and beyond through better health promotion.

Context

The thirtieth WHO World Health Assembly, held in 1977, had highlighted the importance of promoting health so that all the international citizens had an "economically productive" level of health by the year 2000. Further, a localised European taskforce developed a strategy for health promotion in the WHO European Region.

Action areas of the Ottawa Charter

Five action areas for health promotion were identified in the charter:
  1. Building healthy public policy
  2. Creating supportive environments
  3. Strengthening community action
  4. Developing personal skills
  5. Re-orienting health care services toward prevention of illness and promotion of health
The basic strategies for health promotion were prioritized as:
Internationally:
Within countries: