During the past weeks the Jakarta Conference on Health Promotion has
been an item of this discussion group. The main issue referred to
participation in that conference.

I have been aware of the Jakarta Conference for quite some time and I
have tried to figure out what it is all about. Given the assumed
importance of the conference, it seems to me that public information
policies of WHO are not satisfying at all. Up until now, we have not
yet received information what will be going on in this conference, we
don't know the profile of participants (though there is indication
that closer links to industry and governments are to be developed),
and we have no idea whatsoever what the notorious *Jakarta
Declaration* will be about.

We can blame all these deficits on the bueraucratic and political
procedures of WHO, and perhaps, we are right to do so.

To me, a different aspect of the situation is much more important. We
are obviously caught by WHO's activities rather than by what health
promotion and public health policies on international, regional, and
national levels should all be about. We seem to wait for *Mother
Mighty WHO* to tell us where to go from here.

I have my doubts that WHO is able to deliver an adequate message. The
organization has its severe problems with its member states when it
comes to public health policies. The Clinton Administration, for
example, is trying to cut down on WHO's public health policies in
terms of social policies aiming at the improvement of living
conditions and lifestyles conducive to health. WHO is an
inter-governmental organization and those who pay the membership fees
select the music WHO is performing accordingly.

Health promotion and public health have gone beyond the political and
perhaps structural limits of what WHO is able to provide and support.
This is particularly true if you look at the six Regional Offices of
WHO which enjoy a substantial amount of independence from what HQ in
Geneva is doing. It's within the Regional Offices where the *real
work*, i.e. the application (or rejection) of WHO-HQ's initiatives
happens.

I guess it's time that WE organize ourselves and work for the goals
we find important rather than waiting what WHO may deliver them via
some glossy brochures (or even brochures on recycled paper). Our own
activities may even help WHO staff to discuss within their organization
programs that go a few steps further than the ones we are able to
observe today.

Eberhard Wenzel
Griffith University
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Nathan, Qld. 4111
Australia
Tel.: 61-7-3875 7103
Fax:  61-7-3875 7459
e-mail: [log in to unmask]