Healthy Municipios in Latin America.

PIP: This article describes the Healthy Municipios movement in Latin America and gives examples of some PAHO projects that could become demonstration projects. The Healthy Municipios movement was established in the early 1990s. The movement aims to promote healthy municipalities according to objectives set forth in the 1987 Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion, the 1992 Declaration of Bogota, and the 1993 Caribbean Health Promotion Charter. The movement is a joint effort of government, the health sector, and the community in promoting health locally. Key features of the movement are its creativity, variety, political strength, and adaptation to local conditions. Technical cooperation serves the purpose of facilitating information exchange and promotes the use of modern techniques of analysis and scientific and technical information. All projects shared the following common features: initiation by the local community with strong political commitment, intersectoral organizational structure, widespread community mobilization and participation, problem solving activities, and a recognizable leader. Pioneering projects include the Comprehensive Project for Cienfuegos, Cuba; the Health Manizales, Colombia; the Network in Mexico; Baruta and El Hatillo, Venezuela; Valdivia, Chile; and San Carlos Canton, Costa Rica. It is concluded that these projects and most others aim to assure equity. These efforts are important for placing health on the political agenda and implementing healthy policies. The Valdivia project, for example, serves a population of about 120,000 in the urban city of Valdivia, the semi-urban area, and rural areas. The project was officially sanctioned by the President of Chile on World Health Day in 1993. Progress was reported in mass communication and school-based programs. Attention was directed also to prevention of risk factors for noncommunicable diseases and to the problem of traffic accidents.^ieng

Healthy municipios in Latin America

The health municipios strategy in Latin America is helping to promote new social pacts in the search for solutions to problems affecting health and well-being; to strengthen the principles of solidarity; and, above all, to find a means of achieving equity. Through this movement, the health sector is bolstering its leadership capability by putting health on the political agenda. In the process, the organization services is being improved and the formulation and implementation of healthy poblic policies is being advanced. The political, financial, and technical challenges are great, but is they can be met, the healthy municipios movement will contribute to building a culture of health through the promotion of healthy lifestyles and to strengthening democratic processes and fostering good citizenship

Healthy municipios in Latin America

The health municipios strategy in Latin America is helping to promote new social pacts in the search for solutions to problems affecting health and well-being; to strengthen the principles of solidarity; and, above all, to find a means of achieving equity. Through this movement, the health sector is bolstering its leadership capability by putting health on the political agenda. In the process, the organization services is being improved and the formulation and implementation of healthy poblic policies is being advanced. The political, financial, and technical challenges are great, but is they can be met, the healthy municipios movement will contribute to building a culture of health through the promotion of healthy lifestyles and to strengthening democratic processes and fostering good citizenship

Paper prepared for the Internatonal Conference on Healthy and Ecological Cities, Madrid, 22-25 March 1995

[Health from the municipality: a strategy for development]. / Salud desde el municipio: una estrategia para el desarrollo.

Taking into account some aspects of the evolution of the health-illness concept, and considering that health depends on four elements--human biology, environment, life styles and health promotion with emphasis on well-being--the intersectorial action, the participation of the population in their own health care and the reorientation of services through the development of local health systems, are evaluated. At the same time mention is made of the importance of the decentralization process and the district's participation in the democratization of the civilian life. Considering all these aspects, the possibility of implementing the healthy district strategy as an alternative and facilitating form of development and well being and as a way to distribute health more equitably, is proposed. To increment the effects of this strategy, support for the creation of a regional movement of healthy districts is suggested.