The World Health Organization (WHO) has been implementing the Healthy Marketplace initiative in the market setting of developing countries since 1997. This initiative forms part of the Healthy Cities strategy and is reinforced through the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. The WHO Food Safety Division has indicated that every city in the WHO Healthy City program will eventually also have a Healthy Marketplace program. This is despite the absence of any published guidelines for facilitating program implementation, a clearly articulated Healthy Marketplace concept, and a dearth of meaningful program evaluations. This thesis set out to explore the views and experiences of in-country stakeholders involved in a Vietnamese Healthy Marketplace program. It also set out to examine the roles and perceptions of experts engaged in the design and delivery of programs across the developing world. Through an iterative and post-positivist research methodology, this inquiry collected and analysed data from five key sources: documents, detailed questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and observations and reflections. The findings revealed that various and even conflicting program concepts and aims existed across and within groups, having significant implications for practice. The settings approach was not the dominant approach to health promotion in the Vietnamese market, but rather a 'top-down' topic-based approach dominated as the mechanism for program delivery. Consequently, numerous challenges have been identified for Healthy Marketplace policy and practice. The challenges are prefaced on the adoption of a settings approach, and include the need for : market communities to set their own agendas; the program target audience to be redefined; increased power sharing across stakeholders; the re-education of professionals; the sharing of knowledge; and the adequate resourcing of Healthy Marketplace programs / Master of Science (Hons)

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1952. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Proefschrift Universiteit Maastricht. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Engels.

In the thesis we have defined what is understood as a high health organization, and this in comparison with what is commonly known as a high performance organization. While much research is undertaken around high performance organizations, little or no research is undertaken around high health organizations. The thesis attempts to find answers to what it takes to be or to become a high health organization, and how organizations could create such a place, or possibly better “space”. Indeed, a high health organization is not a place, a building, or on organizational structure; it is a state of mind, a purpose, a form of coherence. The work in this thesis is by definition multidisciplinary and systemic, rooted in three, for the purpose, complementary research areas. Workplace spirituality is slowly making its recognition in the management literature, though still too much as a discipline in itself. Ayurveda, the thousands of years old wisdom tradition around systemic health, living systems and purposefulness does get some attention in academic work, however mainly within its cultural roots (of India). Finally, systemic thinking, not really mainstream yet either, is a scientific discipline that did find its way in the sciences, but is much less popular and use in management studies. As argued, we think that in the intersection of workplace spirituality, Ayurveda and systemics, a real new concept of a high health organization is emerging. Key concepts identified in the introduction were consciousness and coherence, which they play an important role in the entire thesis. The prevailing management research is based on an ontology of materialism, while it is clear that workplace spirituality, Ayurveda and systemics do not necessarily fit such an ontology. We have commented on an ontology of non-materialism, based on complexity theory and in particular the understanding of complex adaptive systems. If we would like to explore the concept of a high health organization, an adequate ontology (and epistemology) is necessary. It is impossible to develop a non-materialistic concepts within a materialistic ontology. The consequence of this ontological choice for our research methods are multiple and innovative. Our research method goes beyond deterministic causality, and attempts to visualize entanglement. It can only be based on a much more systemic analysis than what we are used to, hence we use Artificial Neural Networks and Semantics as analytical tools. Based on the results of our field research, the high health organization in a nutshell has the following components: 1. A systemic, values-based vision is the lighthouse of the high health organization 2. Values, and in particular lived values, are the driver of the high health organization 3. Transparent, clear, respectful and non-violent communication is the binding factor 4. A knowledge and learning culture is the necessary condition for a healthy organization 5. Organisational consciousness in the organization is the sufficient condition

The following paper explores the rise of global biopolitics by focusing on the League of Nations Health Organization (LNHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as pivot points around which an international system transitioned into a global system. The central thesis of the paper is that the LNHO served as the first true site of deployment for global discourses on health and hygiene, not as recent scholarship has suggested, the WHO. The purpose of the paper, however, is to provide an overview of the larger transformation of public health in the twentieth century, beginning with the proliferation of nineteenth-­‐century international health organizations and culminating in the WHO. Central to this argument is the belief that population control is the ultimate end of the modern state, firmly placing discourses on health and hygiene at the nexus of modern politics. At its heart, this paper is about the nature of the modern state in relation to an increasingly global world.

Introduktion: WHO publicerade 2021 nya rekommendationer för fysisk aktivitet, i rapporten inkluderades även rekommendationer specifikt anpassade för personer med funktionsnedsättningar. I rekommendationerna belyser WHO vikten av ökad fysisk aktivitet, minskad skärmtid och minskat stillasittande för barn och ungdomar med funktionsnedsättningar.  Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka om fysioterapeuter/sjukgymnaster (FT/sjg) inom habiliteringsverksamhet i Sverige känner till WHOs rekommendationer om fysisk aktivitet för personer med funktionsnedsättningar. Vi undersökte även hur rekommendationerna implementeras av FT/sjg, samt om de upplever att rekommendationerna är en bra modell för arbetet med olika patientgrupper. Metod: En enkätundersökning genomfördes med totalt 20 frågor. Rekryteringen skedde genom två Facebookgrupper samt kontakter i habiliteringssektionens styrelse. Frågorna var uppbyggda med både flervalsfrågor och öppna skrivfrågor och undersökte fysioterapeutens upplevelser av WHOs rekommendationer. Resultaten redovisas deskriptivt och på de öppna frågorna genomfördes en sammanställning samt indelning i text med citat. Resultat: Enkätundersökningen resulterade i totalt 28 deltagare. De visade att majoriteten av FT/sjg kände till rekommendationerna samt att de används inom vården men även att några inte var bekanta med rekommendationerna och/eller valde att inte använda dem. De kvalitativa frågorna visade även att det finns behov av att individanpassa målen ytterligare. Konklusion: Svaren pekar mot att majoriteten av Ft/sjg känner till målen och använder dem i arbetet med patienterna. Däremot kan de vara för svåra att uppnå och en större individanpassning är nödvändigt. Svaren tolkas dock med försiktighet pga. få deltagare.

The move toward primary health care renewal in Canada and in industrialized nations around the world is resulting in a fundamental change in the way health care is delivered. Citizen participation is one of the five pillars of primary health care-not just participation in decisions related to an individuals health care treatment, but also from the larger perspective of decision-making that affects policy and structure within an organization. Health care organizations want to be responsive to the needs of their communities, and consumer-savvy citizens increasingly expect to play a part in the decision-making process of organizations. <p>The relationship between health care administrators, providers and citizens is sculpted by fundamental philosophies, values and processes. These include organizational culture, change process, social capital, citizen role definition and shared power or citizen empowerment. This research seeks to link the concepts and create an understanding of the dynamic and complex relationships which result in effective or ineffective citizen participation in decision-making within organizations. A theoretical framework was used which addresses these fundamental philosophies.<p> The object of this research is to explore the processes and structures of organizations that facilitate or hinder meaningful citizen participation. Community health centres (CHCs) have long been recognized in Canada and around the world as leaders in the facilitation of citizen participation, and this research reviews pertinent documents from fourteen CHCs across Canada. Some of the data collected from a national research project on community health centres is used. Through secondary analysis, the original results of the document audit are compared to the original results of a quantitative survey administered to volunteers, clients, health care professionals and board members at each site that collected information about community capacity, organizational capacity and outcomes. <p> Results of this thesis research are presented in a framework of community and organizational characteristics influencing the degree of public participation supported in the literature. The research presented in this thesis shows some relationship between supportive factors identified in the organizations documents and the degree of participation and satisfaction identified in the quantitative survey results. Possible reasons for this relationship are explored and recommendations are made based on a hierarchical model of participation, with greater citizen participation as the goal.

The move toward primary health care renewal in Canada and in industrialized nations around the world is resulting in a fundamental change in the way health care is delivered. Citizen participation is one of the five pillars of primary health care-not just participation in decisions related to an individuals health care treatment, but also from the larger perspective of decision-making that affects policy and structure within an organization. Health care organizations want to be responsive to the needs of their communities, and consumer-savvy citizens increasingly expect to play a part in the decision-making process of organizations. <p>The relationship between health care administrators, providers and citizens is sculpted by fundamental philosophies, values and processes. These include organizational culture, change process, social capital, citizen role definition and shared power or citizen empowerment. This research seeks to link the concepts and create an understanding of the dynamic and complex relationships which result in effective or ineffective citizen participation in decision-making within organizations. A theoretical framework was used which addresses these fundamental philosophies.<p> The object of this research is to explore the processes and structures of organizations that facilitate or hinder meaningful citizen participation. Community health centres (CHCs) have long been recognized in Canada and around the world as leaders in the facilitation of citizen participation, and this research reviews pertinent documents from fourteen CHCs across Canada. Some of the data collected from a national research project on community health centres is used. Through secondary analysis, the original results of the document audit are compared to the original results of a quantitative survey administered to volunteers, clients, health care professionals and board members at each site that collected information about community capacity, organizational capacity and outcomes. <p> Results of this thesis research are presented in a framework of community and organizational characteristics influencing the degree of public participation supported in the literature. The research presented in this thesis shows some relationship between supportive factors identified in the organizations documents and the degree of participation and satisfaction identified in the quantitative survey results. Possible reasons for this relationship are explored and recommendations are made based on a hierarchical model of participation, with greater citizen participation as the goal.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing problem around the world. To meet the threat of a futurewithout effective treatment of infection, WHO and other authorities have published strategies and actionplans. However, it is unclear to what extent they have been implemented. As the seventh wealthiesteconomy in the world, Brazil could serve as a role model for other fast developing countries in the battleagainst AMR. The objective of this study was to investigate if and how implementation of internationalAMR strategies is addressed in literature, and to describe how such guidelines have been implemented inBrazil. The study was carried out as a literature review of scientific articles and of documents published byBrazilian authorities. In the scientific literature great importance was given to a multidisciplinary approachand to surveillance, with a special emphasis on local data. Brazilian documents showed a focus on healthcare settings and on actions concerning surveillance. Many tools were in place, such as networks and legalframework. Using local data, identifying measures most important for the target group and thenimplementing them, was considered most important. Generally, there was a lack of assessments. Brazil stillhas a long way to go, but has started out well with its focus on surveillance.

Universal Health Care Coverage is one important policy recommendation by the World Health Organization (WHO) to governments in both developed and developing countries (WHO, 1999, 2000). Thailand implemented a policy of universal coverage of health care to enhance its health care coverage (UC) scheme. It is therefore difficult to evaluate policy effectiveness without specified criteria for evaluating the framework through which one could apply policy effectiveness without specified criteria for evaluating the framework through which one could apply policy evaluation tools. The first paper of this three paper series identified potential evaluation criteria for the universal health care coverage program by analysing experiences of developed countries in achieving universal health care coverage and the reform programs they implemented. The second paper identified and examined the criteria for evaluation of the Universal Health Care Coverage scheme in Thailand which reported on qualitative data gathered by the researcher through in-depth interviews with six top executives of private hospitals in Thailand. / These findings from the top executives of private hospitals have been instrumental in exploring the impacts to health providers, the health care practice and public policy for the UC implementation which explored by using different views of criteria for evaluating the UC program from the experience of developed countries. The final paper discusses their connection to theory and explores the views of health providers about which criteria to include, as well as the relationship between intermediate and core criteria, particularly with regard to being strategic in selecting performance problems for priority attention. / The complete series of research papers should prove to be a valuable reference resource and hopefully a guiding compass in assisting Thailand in the continuing implementation and reform of the Universal Health Care Coverage plan. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2007.