RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

The Sustainability Of A National Programme For Developing Local Health Promotion

John G. Maeland

Research Center for Health Promotion, University of Bergen Oisteinsgt. 3, N-5007 Bergen, Norway

In 1989, a national programme for development projects in health promotion was started in Norway. A major goal was to stimulate the municipalities to increase their health promotion activities and to gain experience with alternative organizational developments, such as inter-municipality and cross-sectoral collaborative health promotion work. During the period 1989-1994, about 350 projects were funded a total of 1 30 mill. NOK. The projects covered a broad range of health education and environmental health promotion initiatives. Typically, a project received annually between 100.000 and 150.000 NOK in central funding for 2 or 3 years.

At the end of the project period, the programme seemed to have generated renewed interest and enthusiasm for public health issues in the municipalities. About two-thirds of the projects indicated that all or at least some of the project activities would be continued after the project period.

To further study the sustainability of the project initiatives, a follow-up study was done in the spring 1996 among those municipalities having received funding of local health promotion projects during the period 1989-94. These results will be compared with reports about the general status for health promotion work in the same municipalities, to seek evidence for a sustained effect of the national programme.

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