Infrastructure for health promotion

Those human and material resources, organisational and administrative structures, policies, regulations and incentives that facilitate an organised health promotion response to public health issues and challenges.

Such infrastructures may be found through a diverse range of organisational structures, including primary health care, government, private sector and civil society, as well as dedicated health promotion agencies and foundations. Although many countries have a dedicated health promotion workforce, the greater human resource is to be found amongst the wider health workforce, workforces in sectors other than health (for example in education and social welfare), and from the actions of communities and citizens.

Infrastructure for health promotion can be found not only in tangible resources and structures, but also through the extent of public and political awareness of health issues, and community action for health. The development of infrastructures for health promotion are fundamentally dependent upon effective capacity building.

As defined in the World Health Organisation "Health Promotion Glossary of Terms 2021"

Health promotion is defined by WHO as being the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. Health promotion represents a comprehensive social and political process. It not only embraces actions directed at strengthening the skills and capabilities of individuals, but also action directed towards changing social, environmental and economic determinants of health so as to optimise their positive impact on public and personal health. Health promotion is the process of enabling people, individually and collectively, to increase control over the determinants of health and thereby improve their health.

The Ottawa Charter identifies three basic strategies for health promotion. These are advocacy for health to create the essential conditions for health indicated above; enabling all people to achieve their full health potential; and mediating between the different interests in society in the pursuit of health. The Ottawa Charter identified five priority action areas: to build healthy public policy; create supportive environments for health; strengthen community action for health; develop personal skills; and re-orient health services.

These action areas remain vitally important in health promotion, and the underlying concepts have continued to evolve. Some of these actions – such as re-orienting health services and community action for health – remain but are represented with updated definitions. Others remain in the main body of the glossary but have evolved into different terms. For example, the concept of healthy public policy remains independently valid, but is now included within the contemporary concept of health in all policies. Similarly, developing personal skills is incorporated into definitions of skills for health and health literacy.

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