International Activity

VicHealth was the first health promotion body in the world to be funded by a tax on tobacco. It represents a ground-breaking model for funding of public health programs.

VicHealth works closely with like foundations from around the world to provide information and guidance to foreign governments who wish to establish similar models in their own country.  

International Network of Health Promotion Foundations

VicHealth has formed an alliance with nine other countries that have established or are in the process of establishing health promotion foundations, many based on the VicHealth model.

The International Network of Health Promotion Foundations (the Network) strengthens the work of existing foundations and supports the establishment of new ones. Network members include the Austrian Health Promotion Foundation, Health Promotion Switzerland, Thai Health, Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway), ACT Health Promotion Board (Healthpact) and a range of countries in the process of establishing Health Promotion Foundations including Korea, South Africa, Poland, Malaysia and Canada.

The Network's website contains a significant number of resources on establishing a health promotion foundation as well as links to member websites.

WHO and ProLead

The Network and VicHealth are also involved in supporting the work of the World Health Organisation to increase the number of countries with sustainable financing for health promotion via the ProLead project. Through ProLead, VicHealth is supporting Fiji and Tonga in their quests to establish a Health Promotion Foundation.

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Quit and the VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, both funded by VicHealth, actively lobbied the Federal Government to ensure that Australia became a signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a treaty that gives countries more tools to control tobacco use and save lives, which came into force on 27 February 2005.