Towards a democratic and equitable health system. Project 2: Building citizens health-literacy and intrinsic motivation to becoming co-creators in health promotion

In many parts of the world infectious diseases are severely under-reported, sometimes because of lack of diagnostic capacity and statistics, but sometimes as a conscious decision to protect economic and political interests. This approach is not consistent with good democracy and threaten especially those people already struggling to defend themselves because of poverty or lack of education. Lack of understanding of when, where, how and who suffer from these conditions affect the individual and the society’s ability to prevent spread of infections. Mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever is no exception. 

This is one of three sub-projects within the framework of a well-established collaboration between Västerbotten County Council and Yogyakarta City Government addressing the development of a more sustainable, transparent and democratic health system, using dengue fever as a model. 

This project (2) aims to improve the citizens’ health literacy; the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain good health, and a community-based structure that empower the people to become co-creator of their own health. This work includes establishing clear roles and mandates in the community and to create trust in structures on community as well as governmental level.