Abstract

LOUREIRO, Isabel; MIRANDA, Natércia  and  MIGUEL, José Manuel Pereira. Health promotion and local development in Portugal: Reflect to act. Rev. Port. Sau. Pub. [online]. 2013, vol.31, n.1, pp.23-31. ISSN 0870-9025.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpsp.2013.03.001.

Health, a fundamental human right, is critical to human development. Traditionally it has been regarded as being mainly the responsibility of ministries of health. A better understanding of health determinants has showed that policies and actions of other social sectors are among the factors that most influence population's health. The movement of healthy cities is based in the concepts of co-production and responsibility for health. The municipalities integrating the Portuguese Network of Healthy Cities are committed to intentional planning to promote health, based in policies addressed to physical and cultural environment and to the educational process of communities, promoting participation, empowerment and equity. To promote the recognition of health impact of political decisions taken at different sectors and different levels - national, local - as well as health as a support for resilience against adversity, the project Capacity Building in Health Promotion [Projeto de Capacitação em Promoção da Saúde] - PROCAPS was decided by the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, in collaboration with the Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública from the New University of Lisbon. This project started by studying the actual perception of the political members of municipalities about their role in health promotion and stimulating their responsibility in promoting the health of the populations. In this paper some results of the study and related actions taken are presented. Local policies and actions are proposed as well as processes of action-research and community based participatory research.

Keywords : Participation; Local power; Capacity-building; Health promotion; Municipalities.

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