WHO conference calls for health promotion to be at centre of development

In a bid to put health promotion at the centre of the global development agenda, a new charter urges greater cooperation between medical and non-medical institutions. The Bangkok charter for health promotion was adopted by participants in last week's sixth global conference on health promotion, co-hosted by the World Health Organization and Thailand's Ministry of Public Health. The charter calls for coherent policy and partnering between governments, international and non-government organisations and the private sector. Other than ensuring that health promotion is central to the development agenda, the charter spells out three other main commitments: that health promotion …