First Lady Cecilia Morel leads efforts to make the Elige Vivir Sano (Choose to Live Healthily) program a public policy.
Cecilia Morel was the special guest at the social development ministers committee to present Choose to Live Healthily, and how this program is framed within the National Health Strategy 2011-2020.
During the meeting, it was agreed that the ministries involved would work inter-sectorally to make Elige Vivir Sano a public policy.
In less than two months, one year will have passed since the launch of the Elige Vivir Sano program, led by the First Lady, which encourages healthy living habits among Chileans so they will have a better quality of life. In its first year, the program focused on raising awareness of the importance of a healthy life and the risks that come with inactivity and poor diet.
Today marks the beginning of a new phase for Elige Vivir Sano. This entails an inter-ministerial effort so the program is not only a publicity campaign, but also becomes public policy, giving it the stability and continuity that such an initiative requires in order to bring real change.
To formalize this new phase, the First Lady participated in the committee of Social Development ministers, led by Joaquín Lavín, in which the Ministers of Health, Employment, Education, Economy, the Secretary General of the Presidency, National Women’s Service (Sernam) and the National Sports Institute (Instituto Nacional de Deportes, IND) were also present.
At the meeting, participants spoke of the need to start work from within the various ministries and services involved to create this public policy. The possibility of formalizing an “Elige Vivir Sano” law was also discussed.
“Today we have agreed on the goal of transforming the Elige Vivir Sano program into a public policy proposal. And this is enormously satisfying for us, as it reflects the fact that it is a priority for this Government. We have an ambitious goal, which is for the Chilean people to be healthier and have a better quality of life, and this is why it is so important that the work be transversal, cross-sectoral and a public-private partnership,” said Cecilia Morel.
Cecilia Morel said that the Elige Vivir Sano Program was born of the urgent need to address one of this century’s major health issues around the world, transversally and inter-regionally: chronic non-communicable diseases, such as obesity and sedentarism, and the risks they bring.
16 of the 50 goals of the National Health Strategy 2011-2020 are directly related to the objectives of the Elige Vivir Sano Program.