Ilona Kickbusch

"Governance for health requires a synergistic set of policies, many of which reside in sectors other than health and outside of government and which must be supported by structures and mechanisms that facilitate collaboration. The engagement of people is a defining factor. The concept of ‘governance for health’ can best be illustrated as the culmination of three waves in the expansion of health policy, from intersectoral action, to healthy public policy, to the ‘health in all policies’ approach, all of which are now integrated in whole-of-government and whole-of society approaches to health and well-being."


Governance for Health

Ilona Kickbusch was very much involved in the Health 2020 policy strategy development of the WHO Regional Office for Europe. In September 2019 she received a special award for her “outstanding contributions to improving the health of people in the WHO European Region” by the Regional Director Zsuzsanna Jakab.

For this work Ilona Kickbusch together with co-authors produced two studies as background to the new European Health Policy Health 2020 the WHO Regional Office for Europe. The study on Governance for health in the 21st century defines “governance for health” as the attempts of governments or other actors to steer communities, countries or groups of countries in the pursuit of health as integral to wellbeing through both a ‘whole-of-government’ and a ‘whole-of-society’ approach.

Smart governance for health and well-being: the evidence

An edited version of this study together with all the background papers has been published in 2014 by the WHO regional Office, more.

Implementing a Health 2020 vision: governance for health in the 21st century. Making it happen

This study has since been complemented by a second volume focusing on implementation, here.

Many of the issues raised in these studies are also discussed in Ilona Kickbusch’ work on the health society, health in all policies and on global health governance.