Healthy Europe asked two young public health professionals and members of the Young Forum Gastein, Olha-Mariia Alimenko from Ukraine and Jack Haywood from the United Kingdom, about the relevance of the Ottawa Charter for their work and for the future of health promotion. Their responses are found below.

Olha-Mariia Alimenko, Technical Officer (NCD Risk Factors) at the WHO Country Office in Ukraine

As a public health professional working on the prevention of noncommunicable diseases and school health promotion, I see the Ottawa Charter as being central to my work in Ukraine. In my role at WHO, I work with partners in Ukraine to implement WHO health-promotion frameworks in schools and adapt them to local realities. Our initiatives on tobacco and nicotine use prevention, healthy nutrition and youth engagement to help children and adolescents make healthier choices and grow up in supportive environments. This work continues despite full-scale war, air-raid alerts, attacks, power cuts and disrupted learning. These conditions complicate implementation, but also show why health promotion cannot be postponed. Young people still need trustworthy information, supportive school environments and a role in decisions affecting their health.

I see the Ottawa Charter as being central to my work in Ukraine.

Forty years on, new challenges also include digital misinformation, commercial pressures, widening inequalities and the challenge of sustaining trust during a crisis. The Charter remains a strong foundation, but its principles must now be applied with greater attention to resilience, participation and cross-border solidarity. As a member of the Young Forum Gastein Taskforce, I see young public health professionals not only as future leaders but also as health advocates in their own countries. By bringing shared health values into national dialogue, building partnerships across borders and learning from one another, we help make health promotion a common European responsibility.

Jack Haywood, Public Health Resident Doctor – Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom

As a young public health professional working in global health programmes, I believe the Ottawa Charter remains highly relevant and continues to provide a strong foundation for health promotion. Its emphasis on community empowerment, supportive environments, healthy public policy and cross-sector collaboration reflects many of the same principles that underpin effective global health action today. My work currently focuses on the delivery of immunisation programmes, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Through engagement with partners working to reach zero-dose children, strengthen integrated service delivery and improve equitable access to health services, I see the continued importance of the Charter’s recognition that health outcomes are shaped not only by services, but also by trust, participation and the broader social context in which people live. The decisions made at global and national levels around financing, programme design and partnerships can either enable or hinder meaningful community engagement.

There is an increasing need for communities to be genuinely involved in decision-making.

At the same time, the context for health promotion has changed significantly since 1986. Climate change, conflict and displacement, rapid digitalisation, misinformation and shifting global financing models are reshaping both health needs and the ways in which programmes operate. As global health moves towards more locally led approaches and away from traditional donor-recipient dynamics, there is an increasing need to ensure that communities are not just consulted, but genuinely involved in decision-making. Rather than requiring replacement, the Ottawa Charter needs to be interpreted through this contemporary lens. Its principles remain highly relevant, but must be applied to challenges such as digital engagement, climate resilience and strengthening health systems in increasingly complex environments. For young public health professionals, the Charter continues to provide a powerful framework for action. Our perspectives are important because we are often closer to evolving community expectations, new forms of communication and emerging global challenges. The future of health promotion should therefore build on the Charter’s foundations while ensuring that new voices help shape its next chapter.