Health promotion advocacy: concepts framework and strategies to promote health equity

Advocacy in health promotion is an important instrument of social participation aimed to defend the universal right to health in Brazil. The objective is to describe the concepts and fundamentals and propose strategies in this area. From a literature review (domestic and foreign) exploratory, developed a method of advocacy actions operational in health promotion, in order to assist the practice in this field. The central argument, summarized in a Figure, proposes and describes the variety of strategies for the implementation of advocacy in health promotion. The debate about the actors involved tries to point out consequences for the technical skills needed especially for professionals. It is believed that the foundation of the practice of advocacy in health promotion could stimulate the development / strengthening of democratic playing field, and thus contribute to tackling the health inequalities in Brazil.