Twenty steps for developing a healthy cities project

Overview

One of the major achievements of the Healthy Cities project over the past five years is the accumulation of practical knowledge on how to create credible and effective structures and managerial processes for new public health at city level. To make the vision of a healthy city a reality takes courage, political commitment and openness to innovation and experimentation. Building working alliances for public health, negotiating new resources for health promotion and setting up the organizational requirements for the project can be a time consuming and frustrating process. Understanding and translating the project's strategies and methods of work into plans and action that are compatible with different cultures and organizational traditions is one of the most challenging tasks for the leadership of every city project.