An Introduction to the 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion

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The 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion (9GCHP) will be held from Nov. 21 to 24 in Shanghai. GCHP is the highest level conference on health promotion. The 9GCHP is jointly organized by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of China and the World Health Organization (WHO) and hosted by Shanghai People's Government. Participants working on health promotion from Member States of WHO, representatives of UN agencies, health ministers of some countries, healthy city mayors, and experts in international health promotion and Sustainable Development Goals will attend the conference.

This year is the beginning year of China's 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan (2016-2020) and also the beginning year of "Health China" Initiative, as well as the 30th anniversary of GCHPs. In such an important moment, the 9GCHP hosted by China will not only showcase the Chinese experiences and achievement in health development and health promotion and reinforce the status and role of health in the UN 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but also help promote health promotion theories and practice to energize health promotion development in the 21st Century an contribute to the improvement of health of the people around the world.

A. Background

All the GCHPs over the past 30 years have consolidated the theories of health promotion, disseminated the practical experiences in health promotion at community, national, regional and global levels. The success of the previous GCHPs over the past 30 years could have not been achieved without the participation of impelmenters, policy makers, activists and members of the networks, who were involved in the preparation, designing and convening of the GCHPs, as well as in compiling, revising and disseminating the output documents. GCHPs provide an open, free and participatory platform for sharing thoughts and have become a launcher of social and health innovations. The wider global development agenda requests governments at all levels to put health and sustainable development in the center of social and economic development; GCHPs are part of this global development agenda.

We have witnessed the development and use of health promotion models, methodologies and tools over the past 30 years. Through carefully designed intervention evaluation, we have built evidences of the effectiveness of health promotion, and have accumulated a large amount of experiences in community practice and government policy implementation. The 9GCHP will provide an important opportunity for reiterating the relevance and importance of health promotion in improving health and health equity; offer guidance for countries in using health promotion theories and methods to achieve SDGs; and mobilize communities and governments to achieve "Health for All" through achieving SDGs.

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B. Theme, objectives and agenda of the Conference

1. Theme: Health promotion in sustainable development. The slogan is "Health for all and all for Health". The goal is to promote the incorporation of health promotion into the UN Sustainable Development Agenda by 2030 and the revitalization of health promotion in 21st Century.

2. Objectives:

- Update the tasks in health promotion for the next decades;

- Clarify and optimize the role of health promotion in improving health and health equity;

- Provide guidance for action and help countries to use health promotion concepts and methods to achieve the SDGs;

- Stimulate political commitment to "Health for All" through SDGs;

- Mobilize the public, governments and civil societies to address social determinants of health to take charge of their health in order to achieve the SDGs;

- Share national experiences on improving health literacy to strength cross-sectoral actions and social mobilization to build healthy cities, communities and living environment.

3. Main agenda:

The conference lasts for 3.5 days.

Day1: Opening in the morning which will be attended and addressed by state leaders and important guests. High level forum and Mayor's Forum in the afternoon and about 100 mayors from both China and abroad will be invited.

Day2: "Corss-sectoral Action" session in the morning and "Social Mobilization" session in the afternoon.

Day3: "China Day" – forum and exhibition in the morning followed by field visits in groups to districts and counties of Shanghai after the meeting.

Day4: "Health Literacy" forum and Closing Ceremony in the morning.

C. Outputs

Shanghai Declaration: Calling governments of countries to commit themselves incorporating health promotion into sustainable development agenda; advocating healthy city development, cross-sectional actions, social mobilization and health literacy improvement to promote healthy and sustainable development.

Shanghai Consensus on Healthy City: The political commitment by government leaders to advocate healthy city development and using this approach to promote sustainable development.

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Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development