© Evelyne de Leeuw and WHO (2007). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Ottawa to Bangkok — Health promotion's journey from principles to ‘glocal’ implementation
Deakin University
Melbourne
Australia
World Health Organization
Geneva
Address for correspondence: Professor Evelyne de Leeuw MSc MPH PhD, Chair in Health and Social Development, Associate Dean (Development), Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Melbourne, Victoria 3125, Australia. E-mail: evelyne.deleeuw@deakin.edu.au
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In 1986, a group of delegates from some 50 countries gathered in Ottawa at the invitation of the World Health Organization, Health Canada and the Canadian Public Health Association to develop and affirm a series of principles and actions framing the value systems and practice of health promotion. The organizers had captured the spirit of the times or ‘Zeitgeist’ with great astuteness and foresight: the Ottawa Charter built effectively on a broad range of insights from governments, academia and communities, identifying key areas of concern and further investment for health. The Ottawa Charter thus became a visionary statement profoundly connected to a chain of events such as the world's reorientation towards Primary Health Care, the WHO strategy for Health for All, and people's movements in areas such as women's health, environmental consciousness and human rights.
To many, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion became the gospel and foundation