“What is Healthy Cities Project?”
- It is a long-term development project, which is aiming to improve the physical, psychological and environmental aspects of the Citizens who live and work in a city. Healthy Cities Project starts out from asking what a city is and what should a health city be.
- According to the approach; “city” is a complex organism that lives, breathes, grows and has interior dynamic that changes continuously.
- Health City is a city that can develop its environment and sources.
- The concept of Healthy City is not only a result, but also a method.
- Healthy City is not only a city that has reached the certain level of health city, it is also a city that has health conscious and efforts to develop it. Indeed any city can be a healthy city without paying attention to its current health status; all the needs are to have a structure and operation for achieving and to make a certain decision for health.
The advantages of taking a part in WHO Healthy Cities Project are;
- Being a part of international activities and raising the awareness of public health
- Taking a part in the works for “Health For Everyone” in accordance with Millennium 21 principles and applications
- Creating an international platform where efficient applications will be developed
- Providing the necessary power such as European funding for partnership projects
- Being a sample for other cities in Turkey with the works carried out in Bursa and assisting the development of Healthy Cities Partnerships
- Establishing a network on health problems with other member cities in order to share information and application experiences
- Reaching research and development works about social effects of health and its unfair distributions on health.
- Developing a working environment based on participation and democratic values within the city.
“Healthy Cities Network”
Urban health is a gradually important and interesting scope for World Health Organization (WHO) European Region. Many studies and reports emphasized the growing challenges related with health such as poverty, violence, social exclusion, pollution, housing under standard, needs of young and middle aged people that cannot be covered, homeless people and immigrants, unhealthy settlement planning, the need of focusing to the lack of participative works, inequality and sustainable development. Healthy Cities Project in European Region indicates the value of holistic approach. This is an efficient and popular mechanism in order to develop policies and programmes related with health for everybody by way of a clear politic commitment, institutional changing and partnership between sectors, innovative activities aiming all points of life conditions, process includes intensive connections in local level between Europe and across.
Over 1000 cities and towns from more than 30 countries from WHO European Region have been called as healthy city. These are connected with national, regional, metropolitan and thematic healthy cities as well as Healthy Cities Network for the healthy cities that are in forward stages. These participating cities of the network improve and implement a broad spectrum of products including city health profiles and city health plans and strategies and Agenda 21, based on collaboration between sectors and social development initiatives and programmes addressing the needs, living styles and environmental health of vulnerable groups.
WHO Healthy Cities Network represents a key construction in order to develop responsibility and innovation and a source of valuable expertise, legality and continuing learning. National networks and thematic/ad hoc networks that are in national and international level are developing with dynamic cooperation and innovation beyond all conventional politic, professional, regional and sectoral boundaries.
Click to visit WHO Healthy Cities Project Website.
