Brazilian’s Health Policy and its misalignment with international guidelines for Health Promotion

Abstract

Abstract Following the First Health Promotion Conference in Ottawa in 1986, several other global level Conferences were held, and Shanghai was the last City to host the 9th Health Promotion Conference in 2016, where several world leaders assume commitments that meet the common cause of the topic in question, presenting robust outcomes such as the Letters, Declarations and Implementation Guides. This work aimed to analyze the coherence of the development of the current National Health Plan in Brazil in relation to the central axes of the most recent international documents, referring to the Shanghai Declaration and the Guide for the National Implementation of the Shanghai Declaration. The results showed that Brazil presents a National Health Plan that definitely does not include the actions proposed in the most recent international documents, such as the Shanghai Conference report and the Guide for National Implementation of the Shanghai Declaration. Paradoxically, Brazil has other institutionally implemented instruments that consider the activities recommended from these international documents in a very satisfactory way. Among these instruments are a specific National Policy on Health Promotion, and several Health Care Programs and Networks aimed at some of the National Policy on Health Promotion strengthening axes, such as the National Tobacco Control Program, the Health at School Program, the Health Gym Program, in addition to other related National Policies, such as the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices and the National Policy on Medicinal Plants and Herbal Medicines. It is concluded that the National Health Plan is a symbolic instrument that is not in line with international recommendations and, contradictorily, it is also not in line with the own policies and programs that are successfully implemented and developed in national territory. Key messages There is a misalignment between the real meaning that a National Health Plan should present and its current content, what leads to an insuficent instrument for enhancing health promotion. While the national health plan is out of alignment with strengthening health promotion, other nationwide specific policies developed reinforce international guidelines.