A Global Charter for the Public’s Health—the public health system: role, functions, competencies and education requirements*

Abstract

### Growth, development, equity and stability Political leaders increasingly perceive health as being crucial to achieving growth, development, equity and stability throughout the world. Health is now understood as a product of complex and dynamic relations generated by numerous determinants at different levels of governance. Governments need to take into account the impact of social, environmental and behavioural health determinants, including economic constraints, living conditions, demographic changes and unhealthy lifestyles in many of the World Health Organization (WHO) Member States. This understanding and increasing globalization means it is very timely to review the role of (global) public health in this changing societal and political environment. ### Globalization The positive and negative impacts of globalization need to be better understood by public health professionals and more widely acknowledged by policy makers. Globalization is marked by increased interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples and countries, based on the opening of borders to increasingly fast flows of goods, services, finance, people and ideas across international borders and the changes in institutional and policy regimes at the international and national levels that facilitate or promote such flows. It is recognized that globalization has both positive and negative impacts on health development. Increasingly trade agreements provide frameworks for intergovernmental relationships; however, possible impacts on human health are not routinely assessed prior to signing. ### The proposal for a Global Charter for the Public’s Health In this context, the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) has developed the A Global Charter for the Public’s Health (GCPH) as the main output of its collaboration plan with the WHO to adapt today’s public health to its global context in the light of and in conjunction with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). GCPH brings together the best of all the existing models and provides a comprehensive, clear and flexible framework that can be applied globally and within individual countries, whether low, middle or high income. The WFPHA has …