More than 4,500 participants at the Global Conference, held in a virtual and teleconference format from Geneva, Switzerland, agreed on the Geneva Charter for Well-Being. The document builds on the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and the legacy of nine global conferences on health promotion. It notes the need for the global community to commit to achieving equitable health and social development now and for future generations without compromising the health of our planet. The charter will encourage policymakers and world leaders to take this approach and set a course for concrete action.
“The source of health is not the hospital or the clinic. It comes from our homes and communities, the food we eat and the water we drink, the air we breathe, our schools and our workplaces,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus. – We must fundamentally change the way leaders in politics, the private sector and international institutions think and value health, and promote growth that is based on the health and well-being of people and the planet for all income levels.
The charter outlines the necessary components of a “well-being society” and the steps to be taken to better prevent and contain the many health and environmental crises we face around the world. It identifies key areas for action and outlines ways to put them into practice.
The document recommends five main courses of action:
Building a just economy that serves human development within the boundaries of the entire planet;
Developing public policies that focus on the common good;
Achieve universal health coverage;
Undertaking a digital transformation to counter deprivation and disempowerment and strengthen the benefits; and
recognizing the value of the planet and preserving it.
“It’s time to think about how economics can serve the societal goal of well-being-an investment that is central to the productivity, sustainability, and inclusiveness of economic systems,” says Dr. Rüdiger Krech, director of the WHO Health Promotion Department. – We cannot – we must not – return to the previous wasteful pattern of production and consumption, to the previous indifference to the planet that is the source of all life, to the previous wandering between panic and carelessness and to the previous politics of hostility that fueled the current pandemic.
Changing the world’s state of development requires that the primary measure of human progress be the well-being of both people and the planet. The Charter calls on nongovernmental and civil organizations, academia, the business community, governments, international organizations, and all stakeholders to work to vigorously implement strategies for health and well-being in partnerships involving all social forces. Such strategies will facilitate transformations that enable all countries to build a society of well-being, with a focus on caring for marginalized populations.
Going forward, countries need to prioritize health within a broader ecosystem that includes environmental, social, economic and political factors. Universal health coverage based on sustainable primary health care should be the focus of our efforts, as it is the cornerstone of socioeconomic and political stability. In doing so, we must redefine health not as a cost, but as an investment in our common future.