Healthy cities, an integrated health promotion approach
Washington, DC, September 5, 2002 (PAHO) -- In the competition to be named Healthy Cities, many cities throughout the Americas are getting involved in health promotion, emphasizing community approaches and making public health a priority in municipal policies. This was the objective of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) when it launched the Healthy Cities initiative.
"The mission of the Healthy Municipalities and Communities Movement is to strengthen the implementation of health promotion activities at the local level, placing health promotion at the highest priority of the political agenda,"according to a PAHO document. It fosters the involvement of government authorities and "the active participation of the community, supporting dialogue, sharing knowledge and experiences and stimulating collaboration among municipalities and countries. The movement seeks to build and strengthen multisectoral partnerships in order to improve the social and health conditions in the spaces where people live, advocating for the formulation of healthy public policy, maintaining healthy environments, and promoting healthy lifestyles," it adds.
PAHO has collaborated with a number of countries in the promotion of the Healthy Municipalities initiative. A municipality is said to begin that process "when local organizations, citizens and elected authorities enter into an agreement and implement a plan of action that will continuously improve the social conditions that produce health and well-being for all of the people that live in that space. In essence, a healthy municipality is a process that requires strong political conviction and support together with equally strong community determination, participation and action."
In Mexico, the healthy municipalities movement is considered a key national strategy to promote collaboration among different sectors, community participation, the dissemination of information on health and public policies, and the creation of healthy spaces. PAHO has provided technical cooperation and mobilized national and international resources for the consolidation of strategies and projects of the healthy community network. Today, the country has more than 1,500 registered municipalities in a program coordinated by the Ministry of Health. Many of these are around old Aztec settlements that, in turn, were established according to sound ecological principles.
Healthy municipalities in Mexico have carried out education campaigns to protect the environment and basic sanitation, projects to improve the quality of life and physical and social environment, and drug addiction prevention activities. They have also established investment policies designed to improve the quality of life of special groups affected by several types of inequities.
In Argentina, healthy municipalities have worked with NGOs, schools, governmental and educational institutions, ecological groups and the Red Cross to improve the health of children, adolescents and mothers. They are working to reduce malnutrition, create microenterprises and community vegetable gardens, and to establish broadcasting networks to disseminate health promotion information.
Chile strengthened its health promotion efforts by creating committees for health promotion in 60 per cent of its municipalities. The mayors worked to ensure political support and mobilize resources.
The creation of healthy spaces in Jamaica was expanded to include an inter-ecclesiastical grouping, expanding health services of church groups to include health promotion.
The first healthy cities projects were implemented, following the European and Canadian experiences, in Managua, Nicaragua; Valdivia, Chile; Cienfuegos, Cuba; Zacatecas, Mexico; Manizales, Colombia; Zamora, Venezuela; San Carlos, Costa Rica; and Curitiba, Brazil.
Most of these projects are still active today. The Managua Healthy Cities Project focuses on environmental and urban health concerns. The Valdivia Project in Chile continues to focus on preventing chronic diseases, obesity, cardiovascular illness, cancer and accidents. Curitiba in Brazil continues to provide an example of urban engineering, care for the ecology and transportation planning that distinguishes this city from others.
To keep tourist destinations as healthy places, PAHO, its Caribbean Epidemiology Center, and the Caribbean Hotel Association have also developed a healthy tourism program in the Caribbean. They have developed standards for the tourist sector in such areas as environmental administration for hotels, security, food safety, safety and occupational health, disaster preparedness, monitoring of diseases and integration and community collaboration.
In collaboration with the Ministries of Health of Bahamas and of Uruguay, PAHO has been working to improve physical and social conditions in establishments for older adults, revising surveillance systems and holding workshops to train caregivers. Lessons learned in these and the other projects are expected to be useful for other countries.
PAHO, which also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, was established in 1902 and is the oldest health organization in the world. It works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and raise the living standards of their peoples.
Related Information:
PAHO BOOKS:
Local Health Systems: An Ongoing Strategy
Primary Health Care and Local Health Systems in the Caribbean
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