Designed for policy makers and health education professionals, this paper presents a rationale and strategies for adapting health education to meet the needs of developing nations. Emphasis is placed on the need for health promotion rather than prescriptive health education. Section A, the first of two main sections, discusses perceptions of health problems, biomedical components related to health care in less developed countries (demographic factors, malnutrition, unsanitary living conditions, and lack of medical care), weaknesses in USAID and other agency approaches to health education, and historical changes in the training and use of health personnel and resources. Eight health manpower objectives are presented. Section B considers changes from health education to health promotion. The role of the Alma Ata Conference (1978) in setting the stage for a participatory approach to health education, the relationship between behavior modification and health promotion, and policy reformulation priorities involved with health promotion are outlined. A chart illustrates differences between health education and health promotion. Non-formal and formal school-based health education programs, cognitive bias in traditional school health programs, social variables in health education, the role of teacher training institutes in developing teachers as health agents, and recommendations for curriculum innovation to incorporate the new health promotion approach are also considered. The Self Discovery Project developed in Georgia to incorporate the new involvement approach to health promotion is reviewed, as are similar programs in Tanzania and Brazil. (LP)