On Tuesday 8th October 2018, the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization in collaboration with the Ministry of Health organised a workshop at the National ICT Centre in St Kitts. The workshop was part of PAHO’s regional consultation to inform their Strategy and Action Plan on Health Promotion in the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals (2019 – 2030).
We were invited to attend this event along with representatives from a diversity of organisations across St Kitts. Similar events have been held across the Caribbean and the Americas, and the data collected will allow PAHO to recover information, lessons learnt and gain perspectives that will contribute to the construction of their new strategy. The aim is to renew health promotion through a social, political and technical movement, addressing the determinants of health as a path towards sustainable development and towards reducing health inequities.
The objectives of the national consultation are:
- To involve the countries in the construction of the Strategy and Plan of Action on Health Promotion for the revitalization of the movement in the Region.
- To identify key elements that the Strategy and Plan of Action must include to support the countries on the positioning of Health Promotion.
- To collect the Health Promotion experiences in the countries that contribute to the Strategy and Plan of Action.
- To identify the role of actors involved for the implementation of the Strategy and Plan of Action.
- To support the countries in the renewal of the Health Promotion movement with the identification of a lead group at the national level.
Those attending the workshops participated in discussions on four key areas:
1. Settings and local action
2. Intersectoral work, social determinants of health, Health in all policies, and public policies
3. Community participation and social participation for Health
4. Health systems and services
The above discussion points were based on important health promotion concepts as outlined by the Ottawa Charter of 1986 for Health Promotion.
Going forward the Ministry of Health in St Kitts will summarise the information from this event and PAHO will add this to the data collected from all countries taking part in the consultation. They will then analyse the data, identity common themes and important approaches and include these in the draft strategy which will be circulated for comment before a final strategy is published in September 2019.
We would like to thank the Ministry of Health in St Kitts for inviting us to take part in this consultation and look forward to seeing the draft and final strategy when they are made available in 2019.
We do hope that the information collected as part of this consultation will provide PAHO with the information required to develop an effective strategy that supports the needs of each country in the Americas.
