The Application and Evaluation of an Assets-Based Model in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Experience with the Healthy Settings Approach

Abstract

One of the most outstanding characteristics that distinguishs Latin America and the Caribbean from the rest of the world is the social, cultural and economic diversity among and within its countries. Nevertheless, while not being the poorest set of countries in the world, they are one of the most unequal in terms of wealth and health. How to decrease inequities in health through the reduction of poverty and inequality is one of the area’s biggest challenges, in the face of the enormous social, economic, political, climatic and ethnic variations present in these countries. This chapter will discuss the development of the healthy settings approach in Latin America and the Caribbean and the application of a participatory evaluation methodology developed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO) to support the evaluation of health promotion programs in the Region. The experience with the participatory evaluation shows that such methodology can be a powerful tool to support the application of assets-mapping and to demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness to health promotion and assets-based programs.