Making a case for an appropriate governance structure
Investing significant sums of new money into health promotion/tobacco programmes brings its own challenges as well as opportunities to make a real difference to the health of the community. Ideally it will result in the establishment of a new separate organization or entity with a degree of flexibility and independence. Whatever the operational model selected, the new entity will be required to perform a number of tasks and roles. These will depend on the legislative parameters that have been set, but may include:
- funding of innovative health promotion programmes in variety of settings, with the ability to maintain long-term support for successful projects;
- funding health promotion research;
- replacing funding from tobacco sponsorship and advertising;
- developing support services like telephone hotlines;
- facilitating health promotion alliances;
- disseminating health promotion information;
- advocating for and supporting the development of health promotion policy;
- building capacity of the health promotion workforce, including those in community organizations; and
- evaluation and monitoring funded projects and the health promotion entity itself.
Establishing an appropriate organizational model to successfully undertake these roles is crucial to the success of the initiative. There may be parties wishing to promote a particular model or mechanism. Furthermore, there may be existing organizations or departments to take on the role.