In health promotion, empowerment is a process through which people gain greater control over decisions and actions affecting their health (World Health Organization, Health Promotion Glossary, 1998, Geneva WHO).
WHO continues and elaborates the definition in the glossary; Empowerment may be a social, cultural, psychological or political process through which individuals and social groups are able to express their needs, present their concerns, devise strategies for involvement in decision-making, and achieve political, social and cultural action to meet those needs. Through such a process people see a closer correspondence between their goals in life and a sense of how to achieve them, and a relationship between their efforts and life outcomes. Health promotion not only encompasses actions directed at strengthening the basic life skills and capacities of individuals, but also at influencing underlying social and economic conditions and physical environments which impact upon health. In this sense, health promotion is directed at creating the conditions that offer a better chance of there being a relationship between the efforts of individuals and groups and subsequent health outcomes in the way described above. What is meant by empowerment must, therefore, be explained depending on the context.
The Empowerment Working Group discusses and studies how the empowerment perspective is taken care of and made visibel in Nordic policy documents.
updated 2025-06-20
Current active members of the group
Sofie Buch Mejsner (Convener) – website
Fereshteh Baygi – website
Bente Dahl – website
Leena Eklund Karlsson – website
Hadil Elsayed – email
Malin Eriksson – website
Catrine Kostenius – website
Johan Lidmark – LinkedIn
Ulrika Lögdberg – website
Lisbeth Kronsted Lund – LinkedIn
Niko Männikkö – email
Berit Misund Dahl – website
Heidi Myglegård Andersen – mail
Petra Nilsson Lindström – website
Jennie Ryding – website
Pernille Tanggaard Andersen – website
Maria Warne – website
Publications of this working group
Mejsner, S. B., Baygi, F., Timilsina, A., Anh Tuan, N. P., Dahl, B. M., Eklund Karlsson, L., Lidmark, J., Lögdberg, U., & Warne, M. (2024). Perspectives on empowerment programs, and interventions in maritime settings: A systematic review. Journal of Transport & Health, 36, 101816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2024.101816
Dahl BM, Buch Mejsner S, Eklund Karlsson L, Kostenius C, Laverack G, Andersen HM, Warne M, Lidmark J. The Nordic perspective on migration and empowerment. Health Promot Int. 2020 Apr 8:daaa021. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daaa021
For publications written within the network.
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