Overview of Implementation in Health Promoting Settings

The settings approach to health promotion has its roots within the World Health Organization (WHO) Health for All strategy (WHO, 1981) and, specifically, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, which affirmed that: ‘Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where they learn, work, play and love’ (WHO, 1986). Subsequent global health promotion conferences lent further support and legitimacy to the settings approach. The Sundsvall Statement argued that ‘a call for the creation of supportive environments is a practical proposal for public health action at the local level, with a focus on settings for health that allow for broad community involvement and control’ (WHO, 1991); the Jakarta Declaration affirmed that ‘settings for health represent the organisational base of the infrastructure required for health promotion’ and that ‘comprehensive approaches to health development are the most effective… particular settings offer practical opportunities for the implementation of comprehensive strategies’ (WHO, 1997); the Bangkok Charter urged the health sector to work across settings and called on all settings to play a role in advocacy, investment, capacity-building, regulation, legislation and partnership development for health (WHO, 2005); and the Nairobi Call to Action emphasised the importance of intersectoral action and of ‘developing political momentum and leadership for health in all policies and settings’ (WHO, 2009).