Health promotion is a set of intersectoral actions aimed at improving the health of all individuals and at reducing health inequalities. Public health research faces the challenge of identifying the conditions necessary to develop health promotion policies at the territorial level.

To identify the conditions for the development of such a policy, we studied the case of the intersectoral health promotion policy in schools in New Caledonia. Drawing on the Kingdon model adapted to public health by Ridde et al., we conducted a detailed analysis of the context, actors, and mechanisms that enabled the publication of regulatory texts and financial commitments.

We noted a surge in the number of political entrepreneurs in the health and education sectors. These key actors have made health in schools a "problem" in the political sense of the term. Support from the health agency and its partners enabled credible solutions to be proposed, which, moreover, were acceptable to the institutions, in a political context conducive to reaching consensus among members of government who come from different political backgrounds.

A window of opportunity was opened in 2016 with the convergence of three key elements: awareness of the existence of a problem, solutions and a favorable political context, and the mobilization of political actors supported by experts who were able to substantiate the political project.