Sustainable Development and
Environmental Health
Healthy Settings
Healthy Municipalities and Urban Health |
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For over twenty years, the Healthy
Municipality Initiative has been a powerful strategy of
participatory health promotion at the local level in Latin
America. The movement arose from the need to effectively
address the economic, social, and political determinants
of health. The focus is on empowering and mobilizing the
local level to improve the health of communities. The
movement implies the support of local government in the
establishment of healthy public policies, active community
participation, the creation of supportive environments,
the reorientation of health services, and the promotion of
healthy lifestyles.
To be considered as healthy, a municipality, city or
community must go beyond attaining certain levels of
health indicators to continually create and improve the
physical and social environments and expand community
resources to help people to support each other in
developing to their maximum potential.
The strategy strives to attain healthy communities by:
Securing local government commitment by the mayor and
local councilors to build a healthier community.
Facilitating intersectoral collaboration whereby business,
religious organizations, social services, planners, and
environmental groups come together with residents to form
a common vision and shared work plan for a healthy
community.
Promoting the development of public policies that have a
positive effect on the health of people.
Fostering community participation where community groups,
organizations join together in the identification of
health needs and in designing and implementing the action
to be taken.
Giving visibility to health through advocacy and health
communications.
Establishing sustainable mechanisms for supporting
community activities.
What makes healthy municipalities special?. They:
Focus on health and development rather than problems and
risks.
Work toward providing a clean and safe physical
environment.
Maximize human and financial resources to address
community needs.
Foster innovative alliances and partnerships for health.
Involve the community in local government.
Develop collective community spirit and action.
Celebrate historical and cultural heritage.
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Health-Promoting Schools |
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The Health-Promoting Schools Regional Initiative
(HPSRI) serves as a strategic mechanism for advocacy; social
facilitation and mobilization; multisectoral and interagency
collaboration for strengthening regional, national, and local
capacities in health promotion to provide conditions for
learning and integral human development. The Initiative has
contributed to a better understanding of the comprehensive
needs of the child and youth school population for a larger
visibility in the political, socioeconomic, and public health
agendas of the Member States and has promoted a better
understanding of the importance of joint collaboration between
the health and education sectors and the strategic potential
that schools have for health promotion, sustainable
development, and socioeconomic and spiritual growth of
communities. Health-Promoting Schools constitute an ambitious
strategy for school health promotion and a mechanism for
multisectoral efforts and resources aimed at the improvement of
health conditions and well-being, thus increasing opportunities
for better quality education and sustainable human development
for all members of the educational communities. The
Health-Promoting Schools model is based on the coordinated and
synergistic implementation of three main components:
1. Comprehensive Health education, including Life Skills
training.
2. Creation and maintenance of healthy psychosocial and
physical school environments.
3. Health and nutrition services, including mental
counseling and the promotion of active life.
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Local Development and Community Participation |
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The equity and the social inclusion are the guiding
principles of the process of local development shaped as an
environment and a set of tools to strengthen the local
management, the democratic participation of the citizenship
in the decisions that affect and define the health
conditions and quality of life in the context of a reflexive
public sphere, dynamic and that responds to the needs and
aspirations of the population. The public policies are a
motor for the development with equity, while the
participation and the citizen empowerment are the
inspiration and the creativity for the sustainable social
development.
Four strategic
actions are fundamental in order to strengthen the processes
of local development:
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Expansion of
the capacity for articulation of PAHO internally and with
other organizations in order to promote the sustainable
local development.
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To promote the
convergence of related agendas in order to implement
locally the strategies of health promotion, the Millenium
Declaration for theDevelopment and agenda 21 for the
environment.
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Construction of
local observatories as an exercise to strengthen the
social pacts by the health in urban areas and rural
communities.
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Implement the
strategy of municipios and healthy communities,
articulating the aspects of productivity, economic and
social development with primary care and the health
promotion in order to promote the improvement of quality
of life.
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