Is the Ottawa Charter still relevant today?

After 30+ years, the Ottawa Charter is still an important standard for health promotion today (Thompson et al., 2017). The charter still holds basic frameworks and serves as an important template for health promotion worldwide. It is important to recognize the work it has done and what it still brings to the health promotion field.

Although the chart is such an important tool, the world has evolved sociologically and economically in ways those who established the charter in 1986 could have never guessed (Nutbeam, 2008). 30 years ago people still communicated through letters, the internet was making its debut, cell phones were getting invented and my parents bought a home with 50 acres of land for $40,000. Things have evolved since then for the world but also for health promotion strategies.

Thus, to conquer the health promotion goals, the charter would need to be readjusted to this modern world. In 2016, a survey conducted among health promotion practitioners revealed that 83% of them thought that health promotion was due for a deeper reflection (Stock & al., 2016). In addition, the charter reflects a Western colonizer-centric worldview (McPhail & al., 2013). With this perspective, the Ottawa Charter overlooks some of the inequalities minority groups are facing. By way of illustrating the issue, in Canada's health promotion history, the 2SLLGBTQIA+ Canadian community has often been excluded from health promotion research, policy and practice (Mulé & al., 2009). Other groups such as the indigenous community also faced exclusions and did not develop at the same rate as the rest of the country. 

Thus, like most things invented 30 years ago, the Ottawa Charter would need to be revisited to better fit this modern world. However, we cannot overlook the important contribution it served to health promotion worldwide.

Do you believe the Ottawa Charter is still relevant?

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  Yes
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  No

Reference

McPhail-Bell, K., Fredericks, B., & Brough, M. (2013). Beyond the accolades: a postcolonial critique of the foundations of the Ottawa Charter. Global Health Promotion, 20(2), 22–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975913490427

Mulé, N. J., Ross, L. E., Deeprose, B., Jackson, B. E., Daley, A., Travers, A., & Moore, D. (2009). Promoting LGBT health and wellbeing through inclusive policy development. International journal for equity in health, 8, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-8-18

Nutbeam, D. (2008). What would the Ottawa Charter look like if it were written today?.

Stock, C., Milczarski, A., & Saboga-Nunes, L. A. (2016). Is the Ottawa Charter still relevant? A survey among health promotion practitioners and researchers: Christiane Stock. The European Journal of Public Health, 26(suppl_1), ckw168-017.

Thompson, S., Watson, M. C., & Tilford, S. (2017). The Ottawa Charter 30 years on: still an important standard for health promotion. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 56(2), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2017.1415765