Healthy Cities Evaluation: the co-ordinators perspective

The Healthy Cities Project is based on the development of healthypublic policies by local governments. The study aim of someproject teams in different countries has been to find out whatprocesses are involved in the development of these policies,how decisions are made, and who and what they are influencedby. The Valencian Community Healthy Cities Network conductedan evaluation process, part of which is presented in this paper.The aim was to find out the concepts and opinions of the projectco-ordinators concerning the opportunities and problems forhealthy municipal policies, and to analyse the municipal organizationwith a view to detecting structural opportunities for interdepartmentalwork. Interviews were conducted with the people responsiblefor the project in 13 cities and the relevant documents analysed.When discussing their health concept and actions for health,few of the co-ordinators mentioned the ideas contained in theOttawa Charter. The established health programmes were ratherbased on personal/ individual changes and topic approach thansetting-based strategies. The structural and strategic opportunitiesfor interdepartmental work, as well as the active participationof the community in the healthy policies decision-making processneed to be strengthened, as they are perceived to be insufficient.Personal relationships and political differences between thedifferent actors appear to play an important role in the opportunitiesfor the implementation of intersectoral policies.