Part I　Introduction

The Global Conference on Health Promotion initiated by the WHO is the most important and authoritative international conferences in the field of health promotion. It has been held for 8 times between 1986 and 2013. Coorganized by the NHFPC and WHO, the 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion was hosted by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government in Shanghai, China during 21-24 November 2016.

Health Promotion in the Sustainable Development Goals

Health for All and All for Health

To define the important task of health promotion over the next decades; to clarify and optimize the important role and achievements of health promotion in improving health and health equity; to guide member states to achieve the sustainable development goals(SDGs)through practical applications of health promotion; to mobilize the people, governments and citizens to achieve the SDGs by resolving issues concerning social determinants of health; to encourage political commitments to the concept of“All for Health”as an approach to achieving the SDGs; to share and exchange the valuable experience of each member state in improving health literacy, enhancing cooperation among sectors and social mobilization, and creating healthy cities, healthy communities and living environments.

The Conference established four topics(subthemes)around how to achieve the SDGs through health promotion, i.e. ‘healthy cities and living environments’‘action across sectors’‘social mobilization’and ‘health literacy’.

The Conference lasted three and a half days. Nine plenary sessions and 30 parallel sessions were arranged around the theme of the Conference and the four topics. A Mayors’Forum for International Healthy Cities was held in the afternoon of the first day. ‘China Day’was on the third day, including parallel sessions and field visits with a total of 47 routes covering 16 districts in Shanghai. In addition, there were side events including lunch-time symposia, health promotion cases, product display and a poster exhibition.

Two conference documents were issued, namely the Shanghai Declaration on Health Promotion in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development( Shanghai Declaration)and the Shanghai Consensus on Healthy Cities( Shanghai Consensus).

To prepare this Conference, a Steering Committee was established with the Director of NHFPC Li Bin, the Director-General of WHO Margaret Chan, and the Mayor of the Shanghai municipal government Yang Xiong serving as co-chairs; a Conference Organizing Committee; a Scientific Advisory Group and a Local Organizing Committee in Shanghai. Under their leadership and support, the institutions involved successfully completed a variety of tasks, such as organization and coordination, document preparation, external communications, publicity and mobilization, and logistical support.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the Chinese government and WHO and the cooperation of relevant international organizations and individuals, the Conference has been highlighted as a milestone for advancing the development of theory and practice in global health promotion, and is highly praised by the international community. The Conference has the following features:

The scale and level of this Conference surpassed all previous conferences, reflecting the special attention given to it by the Chinese government and WHO, and widespread interest from the international community. 1, 260 guests from 131 countries and 19 international organizations attended the Conference, including 4 top officials from UN organizations, 81 ministers and 123 mayors. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong, Secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee Han Zheng, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jing, and Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Chen Zhu were present at the opening ceremony. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made an important speech at the opening ceremony, Vice Premier Liu Yandong delivered the keynote speech at the Mayors’Forum for International Healthy Cities, and Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, sent a video message. Director-General of WHO Margaret Chan, Executive Director of UNFPA Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNEP Erik Solheim, Secretarygeneral of ITU Zhao Houlin, and Secretary-general of the Inter-parliamentary Union Martin Chungong attended the Conference and gave speeches. Rather than simply attending the Conference, many ministers and mayors made political commitments in their speeches, reflecting the fact that the Conference was not merely a technical meeting, but a conference that highlighted the concept of health promotion and comprehensively exhibited the political will of member states.

Each element of the Conference closely followed the theme“Health Promotion in the Sustainable Development Goals”. Rich in content, an indepth exchange of ideas and good practices took place around the theme of the Conference and the four topics, i.e. healthy cities, cooperation across sectors, social mobilization and health literacy. The contents covered such topics as the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, health governance, political commitments, economic development, social mobilization and multisectoral cooperation, eliminating poverty, climate change, scientific and technical innovation and infrastructure, traditional Chinese medicine, health literacy, women and children’s health, aging, the prevention and control of infectious diseases and chronic diseases, and tobacco control.

The Shanghai Declaration called on countries throughout the world to increase awareness of a common destiny and to let health promotion take a vital place in sustainable socioeconomic development. It also pointed out three future priority areas for global health promotion: firstly, good governance is crucial to health; secondly, cities and communities are key places to achieve health; and thirdly, health literacy promotes empowerment and equity. While pointing out that improving health and well-being is crucial to sustainable development in cities, the Shanghai Consensus on Healthy Cities proposed five principles for the governance of healthy cities and 10 priority areas for action. The Conference documents comprehensively drew upon and built on the five development concepts proposed by the Chinese government, which were Innovation, Harmony, Green, Openness and Sharing, and the practical experiences of China in health governance, building healthy cities, and improving national health literacy.

Through the opening speech, keynote speeches, exchanges during the Conference, China Day forum and activities, showcasing good practices in health promotion as well as product exhibition and presentation, the Conference offered a full picture of the development of health and well-being as well as health promotion in China. At the opening ceremony, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong presented the achievements and the next steps of China’s efforts in health and well-being, and Li Bin, the Director of NHFPC, gave a keynote speech on Healthy China. During information exchange and the China Day, the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Sport, National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council, the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, leaders from more than 30 provinces/cities/districts, relevant experts, and NGO representatives presented China’s active exploration efforts and experiences in such areas as promoting health industry development, enhancing health education, road safety, foreign health aid and national fitness, improving the health and well-being of children and women, and eliminating poverty. By means of the field visits on China Day, important experiences of China in health promotion were shown to the participants. In addition, the Conference also showcased 27 Chinese examples of good practices in health promotion covering Healthy China, intensified health care reform, health literacy promotion, the patriotic health campaign, the prevention and control of infectious diseases and chronic diseases, traditional Chinese medicine, and emergency health response.