The Directorate-General of Health of the Government of Portugal, abbreviated as DGS, is a central service of the Ministry of Health, integrated in the direct administration of the State, endowed with administrative autonomy. The DGS’s mission is to regulate, guide and coordinate health promotion and disease prevention activities, define the technical conditions for the adequate provision of health care, plan and program the national policy for quality in the health system, as well as ensure the preparation and execution of the National Health Plan.

The Directorate-General of Health (DGS) has, within the scope of Active and Healthy Ageing, a remarkable track record in the development of programmes. The first National Programme for the Health of the Elderly was launched in 2006, following the Madrid Political Declaration and International Plan of Action on Ageing. This programme was developed within the scope of the National Health Plan 2004-2010 and was considered a good practice in health planning. It was in force until 2016 when an inter-ministerial working group was appointed to develop a National Strategy for Active and Healthy Ageing. The DGS, through Professor Andreia Costa, was a representative of the Ministry of Health and draftsman of this working group.

At the same time, the DGS became part of several working groups in the development of joint projects and actions funded by the European Commission: International Centre on Ageing (CENIE); Programme for a Long-Lived Society (PSL); CHRODIS and CHRODIS + Implementing Good Practices for Chronic Diseases; ADVANTAGE Managing Frailty; Health Promotion for Older People (HP4OP). In the current scenario, Portugal, through the Ministry of Health and the DGS, is committed to the Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health and, consequently, the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, and to the Green Paper on Ageing, proposed by the European Union in 2021. These commitments are reflected in the new National Health Plan 2030, launched in May 2023, where the promotion of active and healthy ageing is a proposed intervention strategy.

More recently, the DGS launched the Ativa Saúde platform, a Portuguese repository of good health promotion practices throughout the life course. It will also be through the Ativa Saúde Platform that the DGS will coordinate the National Network for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities and the National Programme for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities, launched in October 2023 on the Regional Summit on Policy Innovation for Healthy Ageing in WHO European Region. The representatives of several countries who participated in this meeting, co-organized by the DGS and held in Lisbon, developed and signed the Lisbon Outcome Statement, a contribution to the advancement of policies and initiatives for healthy ageing.

The DGS also has a collaboration protocol with the Action Plan for Active and Healthy Ageing, coordinated by the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security and the Ministry of Health.