Minutes:
The Deputy Chairperson welcomed Ms. J. Devlin, Chief Executive, and Dr. D. Stewart, Chairman, Belfast Healthy Cities, to the meeting.
Dr Stewart thanked the Committee for the opportunity to present. He commenced by advising that he was delighted to highlight that Belfast had been chosen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to host its Global Conference of Healthy Cities in 2018, which would bring people from across the world to the City of Belfast. He informed the Members that Belfast was one of the founding members of the Healthy Cities movement and highlighted the vision of the movement, as follows: ‘to be a leader in creating a healthy, equitable and sustainable city’ and that its mission was ‘to promote health and well-being, provide inspiration and to facilitate innovative collaborative action and good policies’.
This was achieved through:
· leadership and learning from the network;
· supporting research, sharing evidence and building capacity;
· piloting innovative concepts and approaches; and
· maximising partners impact on health and inequalities.
The representative advised that all Government Departments’ policies and initiatives affected health and health inequalities and helped shape the living conditions that impacted on the health of the population.
Dr Stewart advised that Ms. Devlin would detail to the Members some of the work currently undertaken by Healthy Cities. Ms. Devlin commenced by highlighting to the Members the evolving challenge of public health. She stated that during the 19th century the problems and challenges faced by people were malnutrition, overcrowding, poor housing, water supply and sewage disposal. She continued that, whilst there had been a positive change over the years to many of these problems, today’s population faced different challenges; a lack of physical activity, obesity, asthma, mental health issues, isolation, cancer, heart disease and demography, to name but a few.
Ms. Devlin proceeded to detail some of the recent work that Healthy Cities had undertaken in respect of Healthy Urban Planning and Child Friendly Places. She reported that there was a strong preference across groups for more green spaces, increased clean public spaces and calmer traffic. She specifically highlighted the work of KidsSpace, explaining that this was a large scale event which explored the creation of child friendly space in the City centre. Since 2011, KidsSpace events had transformed Victoria Square, CastleCourt, St Anne’s Square, Buoys Park, Writers Square and Belfast City Hall into welcoming spaces for families and children.
Dr Stewart informed the Committee that Healthy Cities worked in five year cycles and that the Phase VI Programmes (2014-2018) would continue to address the health inequalities and the challenges outlined above. The representative then outlined the work of Belfast Healthy Cities within the context of the Belfast Agenda and the important role that Belfast currently played within the Healthy Cities movement. He concluded the presentation by outlining the details of the International WHO Healthy Cities Conference that was being held in Belfast from 1st – 4th October, 2018.
The representatives then answered a number of questions which were put to them by the Members and, having been thanked by the Deputy Chairperson, they retired from the meeting.
The Committee noted the information which had been provided.