Nairobi, 30 October 2009 -- Delegates at the 7th Global Health Conference on Health Promotion which ended on Friday 30th October in Nairobi, Kenya have called on governments, civil society, development organizations and health services to join forces and reposition health promotion policies and programmes to curb the unacceptable global toll of preventable ill-health and death.
 
At the end of the historic 5-day conference which was opened by His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, the participants issued the “The Nairobi Call to Action for Closing the Implementation Gap in Health Promotion”, emphasizing that health promotion is the most cost-effective strategy to improve health and quality of life. The Call to Action identified the major actions required to reduce health inequities and boost progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Urging fast action as he performed the official closing of the conference, His Excellency Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, the Vice-President of Kenya said:” We have no option but to  answer the this call and get to work”.

Dr Fiona Adshead in her closing remarks said the ambition of the conference was to ‘take forward the Call to Action and fire up action in Member States”.

During the conference, the complimentary role between health promotion, primary health care and the underlying determinants of health was acknowledged. Delegates called for partnerships, intersectoral action and community involvement to scale up proven cost effective interventions so that the broad health, social and economic benefits of health promotion can be realized.

The Nairobi Call to Action, among other things urges governments to live up to their responsibilities and all sectors to recognize their potential impact upon health and embrace effective health promotion practices. It also encourages all stakeholders to join hands with governments to accelerate implementation.

Hon Beth Mugo, the Minister for Public Health and Sanitation expressed her hope that the Nairobi Call to Action would ‘roar around the world’ and become widely implemented.

The conference was organised under five key sub themes: Individual Empowerment- Health literacy & Health behaviours, Community empowerment, Health systems strengthening, Partnership and intersectoral action and Building capacity for Health promotion. 

Commenting on the outcome of the conference, Dr J. A Diarra-Nama, Director of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases of the World Health Organization, Africa Regional Office said:” This conference has provided the direction and focus for comprehensive action. We must heed the call to accelerate the implementation of policies that can improve health and save lives”.

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