Abstract
Background: The United Nations in 2011 hosted a High Level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) in New York. This was in response to evidence that NCDs were the biggest cause of death worldwide. Member states agreed to a range of measures, however, achieving the global commitments made to NCDS will be a major undertaking and will require sustained advocacy. Professional societies, including the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and the Japanese Society of Health Education and Promotion (JSHEP), have prioritized advocacy and made a commitment to workforce training in advocacy.
Contents: Since 2012 the IUHPE has conducted NCD Advocacy Workshops in Colombia, Thailand, New Zealand, Estonia, France and Taiwan. Most recently, in February 2016, the JSHEP hosted a one-day workshop in Tokyo. The workshop had the twin goals of teaching advocacy content and method and also providing and experiential opportunity for participants to develop an advocacy strategy for a chosen health issue. A draft action plan for each group was an important workshop output.
Conclusions: Participants in the Japan workshop had exposure to the definitions, competencies models for effective advocacy. This is a modest start in a challenging national undertaking for the JSHEP. Further training is required as well as perhaps a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach to take the training to more Japanese health promotion professionals. Health promotion in Japan will benefit through participants' of new skills in their own work, but also form participants imparting those skills to their professional colleagues.
