"We, the nurses and concerned citizens of the global community, hereby dedicate ourselves to the accomplishment of a healthy world by the year 2020.

We declare our willingness to unite in a program of action, sharing information and solutions to resolve problems and improve conditions -- locally, nationally and globally -- in order to achieve health for all humanity.

We further resolve to adopt personal practices and to implement public policies in our communities and nations, making this goal for the year 2020 achievable and inevitable, beginning today in our own lives, in the life of our nations and in the world at large."

The Nightingale Declaration has so far been signed by signatories from the following 106 countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bostwana, Brazil, Canada, Cameroon, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Malawi, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Philippines, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, St Kitts and Nevis, South Africa, Saint Lucia, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Thailand, Turkey, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, UK, Uruguay, USA, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

"Nightingale Declaration for Our Healthy World" is being circulated and signed by millions of nurses, health care professionals, educators and other caregivers across the world starting in 2007. It is being used as a catalyst to gather local, national and global support for a worldwide celebration of the 2010 International Year of the Nurse / Centennial of Florence Nightingale. As well it is a cornerstone under an emerging longer-term global campaign for "Mobilizing Public Opinion for the Health of Nations” that is required to achieve our eventual goal of "achieving a healthy World by 2020” — the Bicentennial of Nightingale's birth. This global public awareness campaign is becoming multi-faceted — involving the United Nations and UN Member States, the worldwide media, in all of its forms as well as global civil society — including "nurses and concerned citizens.” This “Nightingale Declaration for a Healthy World” is a key component of this growing global campaign. Thank you for your commitment to this!

© NIGH, 2007. The Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH) retains this copyright for the expressed purpose of making this Declaration freely available - around the world - to use for the purposes it has been created.