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".World Health Organization. Health Promotion Glossary. Geneva, 1998.
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.
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 Healthy Cities Onkaparinga
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 Official website