Mission and functions

The mission of the Health Promotion Cluster is to provide leadership, guidance and technical support in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health promotion policies, plans, strategies and programmes in order to accelerate the response to the determinants of health to address priority public health issues in the African Region.

The priority public health issues include but are not limited to maternal and child health; HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria; diabetes, hypertension, cancer, violence, injuries and other noncommunicable conditions; environmental degradation; water, sanitation and hygiene; polio, leprosy and other neglected tropical diseases; and the new threats to health (climate change, pandemic influenza, rapid urbanization)

The functions of the Cluster are to:

• Provide leadership and guidance to Member States for increased multisectoral and interdisciplinary actions in all policies and programmes that address the determinants of health in collaboration with all stakeholders through joint actions;
• Promote and support the development of a research agenda in order to generate knowledge on current and emerging issues pertaining to the determinants of health and to apply the findings in policies and programmes;
• Establish norms and standards to address health inequities and determinants of health including strategies, guidelines and competencies, and monitor the efficacy and effectiveness of their implementation;
• Promote evidence-based ethical and equitable healthy public policies in all sectors and across population groups.
• Support Member States in strengthening the capacity for planning, implementation and evaluation of policies and programmes that address determinants of health;
• Monitor the trends of the determinants of health, document and share the evidence and experiences for action.