Stay on your Feet® - Ottawa charter
The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion [38] was developed at the 1st International Conference on Health Promotion held in Ottawa, Canada, in 1986. This Charter still represents consensus agreement on good health promotion practice.
The Charter identifies the prerequisites for health and methods to achieve health promotion through advocacy, enabling and mediation, as well as five key-action areas. Together, these strategies will help to make the healthy choice the easy choice for everyone.
The five key-action areas are:
- Build healthy public policy. This refers to putting health on the agenda of policy makers at all levels and includes legislation, economic measures, taxation and organisational change.
- Create supportive environments. This refers to making living and working conditions that are safe, stimulating, satisfying, enjoyable and provide a positive benefit to health.
- Strengthen community action. This deals with empowering communities to exert ownership, control and action over their own endeavours and destinies.
- Develop personal skills. This covers providing information, education for health and enhancing life skills.
- Reorientate health services. This requires a shift of focus for health services from the current position of treatment and cure to a more cost effective model of prevention. The responsibility for health is shared amongst individuals, the community, government, institutions and other organisations.
