Alliance for Healthy Cities

Alliance for Healthy Cities
The Alliance for Healthy Cities (AFHC) is a cooperative international alliance aimed at protecting and enhancing the health and health care of city dwellers. It is composed of groups of cities, urban districts and other organizations from countries around the world in exchanging information to achieve the goal through a health promotion approach called Healthy Cities. The chair city for the alliance is Ichikawa, Japan.
The alliance and its members work in favour of the healthy city, defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "one that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and in developing to their maximum potential".
History
The first international declaration that promoted the concepts underlying healthy cities, the Alma Ata Declaration, was adopted at the International Conference for Primary Health Care, jointly convened by the WHO and UNICEF in Almaty (formerly Alma-Ata), presently in Kazakhstan, 6–12 September 1978. The primary health care strategy endorsed and targeted health for all the people of the world by the year 2000.
Various discussions have taken place since then. Trevor Hancock and Leonard Duhl promoted the term "Healthy Cities" in consultation with the WHO:
Economic development has brought comfort and convenience to many people in the industrialized world, but in its wake are pollution, new health problems, blighted urban landscapes and social isolation. Growing numbers of the dispossessed are also being left on the sidelines as the disparity between rich and poor grows. In an effort to remedy these ills, people from disparate backgrounds in thousands of communities are joining together with government agencies under the Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities banner to improve the quality of life in their towns and cities.
At the First International Conference on Health Promotion in 1986, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion was adopted that presented actions to achieve healthy life for all people by the year 2000 and beyond.
Following a second international conference on health promotion at Adelaide in 1988 and a third at Sundsvall in 1991, and twenty years after the Alma Ata Declaration, the Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion held in July 1997 in Jakarta adopted the new Jakarta Declaration: "New Players for a New Era - Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century". It came at a critical moment in the development of international PHC strategies.
Timeline
17 October 2003: First organizational meeting held in Manila; participants of the inaugural meeting were cities, national coordinators, NGOs, and academic institutions engaged in the Healthy Cities program worldwide.
12–14 October 2004: The Alliance held its inaugural General Assembly and Conference in Kuching, with city mayors, governors, city officers, public health and urban planning professionals, NGOs, academic institutions, and national and international leaders to celebrate the inauguration of the Alliance for Healthy Cities.
28–30 October 2006: The Second General Assembly and Conference in Suzhou, with the theme Healthy Cities in the Globalizing World.
23–26 October 2008: The third global conference of the Alliance for Healthy Cities was held in Ichikawa with the theme of "Health Security in the City: Healthy Cities activities building a better future".
21–22 July 2009: AFHC International Forum was in Hue.
October 2009: The fourth global conference was held in Gangnam-gu, South Korea
List of members
Australia
City of Casey
Corio and Norlane Development Advisory Board
City of Gold Coast
Illawarra (Wollongong and Shellharbour)
Municipality of Kiama
Logan City
City of Marion
City of Townsville
Cambodia
Phnom Penh
People's Republic of China
Central and Western District, Hong Kong
Changshu
Huai'an
Islands District, Hong Kong
Kowloon City District, Hong Kong
Kunshan
Kwai Tsing District, Hong Kong
Kwun Tong District, Hong Kong
Luohu District
Macau
North District, Hong Kong
Sai Kung District, Hong Kong
Sha Tin District, Hong Kong
Southern District, Hong Kong
Suzhou
Taicang
Tai Po District
Tongzhou, Jiangsu
Tsuen Wan District, Hong Kong
Wujiang, Jiangsu
Yau Tsim Mong District, Hong Kong
Zhangjiagang
Japan
Abashiri, Hokkaido
Abiko, Chiba
Aisai, Aichi
Ama, Aichi
Fujieda, Shizuoka
Fukuroi, Shizuoka
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Ichikawa, Chiba
Izumisano, Osaka
Kameyama, Mie
Kasama, Ibaraki
Kashiwa, Chiba
Kitanagoya, Aichi
Kobe
Minokamo, Gifu
Miyakojima, Okinawa
Myōkō, Niigata
Nagareyama, Chiba
Nagoya
Nagakute, Aichi
Nishitokyo, Tokyo
Obihiro, Hokkaido
Ōbu, Aichi
Osaki, Miyagi
Owariasahi, Aichi
Seiyo, Ehime
Shikokuchūō, Ehime
Suita, Osaka
Tahara, Aichi
Taitō, Tokyo
Tajimi, Gifu
Takamatsu, Kagawa
Toon, Ehime
Yamato, Kanagawa
Yawatahama, Ehime
South Korea
Andong
Asan
Buk-gu, Ulsan
Busan
Busanjin-gu, Busan
Buyeo County
Changwon
Chuncheon
Dobong-gu
Dong-gu, Gwangju
Donghae City
Dongjak-gu
Gangdong-gu
Gangnam-gu
Geumsan
Guro-gu
Gwangjin-gu
Gwangmyeong
Hadong
Hwaseong, Gyeonggi
Jangheung
Jangsu
Jecheon
Jeju-do
Jeonju
Jincheon
Jinju
Jung-gu, Seoul
Muju County
Nam-gu, Gwangju
Namhae
Seocho-gu
Seodaemun-gu
Seo-gu, Gwangju
Seongbuk-gu
Seongdong-gu
Seosan
Seoul
Sokcho
Songpa-gu
Siheung
Suncheon, Jeollanam-do
Taebaek
Uiwang
Wando
Wonju
Yanggu, Gangwon
Yangpyeong
Yangsan
Yeongdeungpo-gu
Yeongi
Yongsan-gu
Malaysia
Kuching
Mongolia
Ulan Bator
Netherlands
Rotterdam
Philippines
Caloocan
Dagupan
Las Piñas
Makati
Marikina
Muntinlupa
Pasig
Parañaque
San Fernando City, La Union
Tagaytay
Valencia City, Bukidnon
Vietnam
Huế
See also
Public health
UNICEF
Primary health care
Alma Ata Declaration
Health promotion
Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
Jakarta Declaration
References
External links
The Alliance for Healthy Cities official Home page
World Health Organization
Organizations established in 2004
Public health organizations
Health promotion
International medical and health organizations
Non-profit organizations based in Japan