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“The Alliance for Health Cities is an international network aiming at protecting and enhancing the health and quality of life of city dwellers. The Healthy Cities approach was initiated by the World Health Organization which has been promoting the approach worldwide.” |
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- Building cities and communities of peace where all citizens live in harmony,
- Committed to sustainable development, respectful of diversity,
- Reaching for the highest possible quality of life and equitable distribution of health,
- By promoting and protecting health in all settings.
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According to Trevor Hancock and Len Duhl, two founders of the Healthy Cities project,
“A Healthy City is one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and in developing to their maximum potential.”
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Moreover, the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific recommends seven principal elements of a Healthy Cities project: |
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The political leaders of the city should make a public commitment that they will work towards the same goal of striving for a Healthy City, using a participatory planning process. |
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The goal of the project is improved health and quality of life for all citizens or people in the city, and the future vision of the city which respects the social and culture values of the communities should be developed by consensus. |
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A mechanism is developed to encourage participatory planning for health. |
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The priorities for project activities are based on considerations that include the following two types of assessment of needs:
- Relationships identified between living conditions and health status, as determined by epidemiological analysis and/or the assessment of public health professionals, and
- Perceptions of the community on priority health and quality of life issues. A participatory process involving all stakeholders is adopted to determine the priority activities.
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The priority project activities are undertaken by multidisciplinary terms that include substantial community participation, and usually not by a single government agency. |
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The project activities undertaken are monitored and their effectiveness being evaluated. |
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The project agrees to share information about its situation analysis, activities and progress with those who are interested in obtaining such information, including those who are involved in the project, the general public, and other Healthy Cities projects in the region. |
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Source: “Building Healthy Cities”, Department of Health |
A Healthy City strives to provide:
- A clean, safe physical environment of high quality (including housing quality);
- An ecosystem that is stable concurrently and sustainable in the long term;
- A strong, mutually supportive and non-exploitive community;
- A high degree of participation and control by the public over the decisions affecting their lives, health and wellbeing;
- The settlement of basic needs (for food, water, shelter, income, safety and work) for all city’s people;
- - Access to a wide variety of experiences and resources, with the chance for a broad channel of contact, interactions and communication;
- A diverse, vital and innovative city economy;
- The encouragement of connectedness with precedent, with the cultural and biological heritage of city dwellers and with other groups and individuals;
- A form that is compatible with and enhances the preceding characteristics;
- An optimum level of appropriate public health and sick care services that is accessible to all; and
- High health status (good health and low diseases profiles).
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| Source: “Building Healthy Cities”, Department of Health |
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