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Ref.: C.L.9.2016

Ninth Global Conference on Health Promotion: “Health Promotion in the

Sustainable Development Goals”
Shanghai, China, 21–24 November 2016

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) presents her compliments
to Member States and has the honour to invite them to the Ninth Global Conference on Health
Promotion, which will be held at the Shanghai International Convention Center in Shanghai,
China, from 21 to 24 November 2016.

This conference, which is jointly organized by the Government of China and the World
Health Organization, is the latest in the series which began in Ottawa in 1986 and produced the
Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion. This benchmark conference was followed by Adelaide
(1988), Sundsvall (1991), Jakarta (1997), Mexico City (2000), Bangkok (2005), Nairobi (2009)
and, most recently the Helsinki conference (2013).

The title of this conference is “Health Promotion in the Sustainable Development Goals”.
The conference slogan is “Health for All and All for Health”. The aim of this high-level
conference of experts and policy makers is to position health promotion at the core of sustainable
development.

The conference will be a working meeting where activities and efforts will be considered
from the practical perspective. Focus will be on examining the contribution of health promotion
not only to health and health equity over the past 30 years since the birth of the Ottawa Charter
in 1986 but also its contribution to realizing the Sustainable Development Goals over the next
15 years. The objectives of the conference are:

• To renew the mission of health promotion for the coming decades;

• to make explicit and optimize the role/achievement of health promotion in improving
health and health equity;
• to provide guidance to countries on the practical application of health promotion
concepts and methods to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals;
• to galvanize political commitment to health for all through the Sustainable
Development Goals;
• to enable people, governments and civil society to address social determinants of health
and, for people to enable to take control of their lives in order to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals;
• to exchange national experiences in improving health literacy, intensifying action
across sectors and social mobilization, and creating healthy cities, community and
human settlements.

The working language of the conference will be English. More information is available at
the following link: http://healthpromotion2016.org/index_en.html.

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C.L.9.2016

The expected outcome of the conference is a concise conference statement and a set of
practice-oriented “how-to” documents. It is expected that the conference statement will be
endorsed by the participants of the conference.

Member States are requested to nominate up to two representatives. Considering the theme
of the conference, it would be appreciated having one nominee from the health sector and one
nominee from a sector other than health. The name(s) of the delegate(s) nominated should be
sent by email to healthpromotion@who.int by 31 May 2016.

To facilitate a wider participation in the conference, and in accordance with

resolution WHA50.1, special consideration will be given to delegates from countries which are
classified as “least developed countries” by the United Nations. Depending on the availability of
funds, every effort will be made by WHO and the Government of China to cover an economy
class airfare by the most direct route to Shanghai as well as accommodation including breakfast
for the duration of the conference for one delegate per least developed country. Member States
who wish to ask for travel support should send an email to healthpromotion@who.int as soon as
possible, and no later than by 31 May 2016, including a copy of the letter from their government
indicating the name, affiliation and contact details of the participant to be supported.

The participation of Member States is essential to the successful outcome of this important
event.

On a separate but related note, a call for posters to be presented at the conference is
attached. Poster submissions can be sent by email to 9GCHPposter@who.int by 17 June 2016.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization takes this opportunity to renew to
Member States the assurance of her highest consideration.

GENEVA, 7 March 2016