Urban Labs for Better Health for All in the Baltic Sea Region – boosting cross-sectoral cooperation for health and wellbeing in the cities

Healthy Boost

PROGRAMME 2014-2020

priority

1 Innovation

objective

1.3 Non-technological innovation

Healthy Boost

Healthy Boost helped local authorities to enhance health and well-being of citizens through cross- sectoral cooperation.

Project summary

What’s the problem and Healthy Boost solution?

The project addressed the transnational challenge of the health burden due to unhealthy lifestyles of the city residents, which cannot be solved by the current fragmented, incoherent urban policies. The project wanted to contribute to the improved – more innovative, effective and integrated – cross-sectoral urban policies. Healthy Boost enabled the participation of citizens in planning policies for health and wellbeing and improved cross-sectoral cooperation in cities of the Baltic Sea region to support cities´ administrations in the provision of health services. In addition, the project enhanced the innovativeness of the administrations in the Baltic Sea region to respond better to current and future complex challenges in the municipalities.

What will stay after the project is over?

The Healthy Boost project brought together fourteen partners representing different levels of governance within various sectors. The main objective of the project was to make urban policies for health and well-being more innovative, more effective and more integrated. The main output of Healthy Boost project was a model for effective cooperation for cross-sectoral urban policies for health and wellbeing developed and tested by nine cities in six countries. Improved after the feedback from different stakeholders, it shall serve other cities in more integrated future work.

details

Budgets

Healthy Boost
in numbers

2.54

Million

Total
1.90

Million

Erdf
0.15

Million

Eni + Russia
0.00

Million

Norway

Achievements

How did it all started?

The project developed a model for cross-sectoral cooperation for health promotion. It was based on scientific literature research and complemented by a self- assessment in the partner cities of Poznan, Klaipeda, Jelgava, Tartu and Turku. The self-assessment gave information of a city’s institutional capacity to implement cross-sectoral cooperation from two points of view: the formal structures for the cooperation (strategies, processes, practices) and the way cooperation works. The project identified gaps in five strategic and operational domains of cooperation: risk identification, leadership, communication, coordination, motivation. After the model was completed, the partner cities ran several pilots along the lines of the specific roadmaps that the city partners designed beforehand (to set scope, timing, goals, actors).

First benefits from cross-sectoral cooperation.

All pilots addressed the need for more effective cooperation for cross-sectoral urban policies for health and wellbeing. Even if the need and the model were the same, the pilots were different. One pilot addressed, for instance, the problem of residents’ physical inactivity, while another was about the need for healthier food in schools and children´s better-eating habits. One pilot focused on the lack of space for physical exercise, another was centered on the communication about health and wellbeing services. The following cities successfully run the pilots and started benefitting from applying cross-sectoral cooperation: Tartu (EE), Helsinki and Turku (FI), Klaipeda (LT), Jelgava (LV), Poznan and Suwalki (PL), Cherepovets and Pskov (RU). City employees worked together with citizens (children, adults, elders) and NGOs. For instance, in Jelgava the pilot focused on healthy, local and sustainable food from the early childhood and school years. The pilot engaged around 200 children, who improved their eating habits in schools, and as a cascading effect, their families benefited too.

Outputs

Self-assessment tool and matrix for cities.

The self-assessment tool is intended for all professionals, such as managers, leaders, experts, civil servants and practitioners. By using it, cities can assess their current commitment to cross-sectoral cooperation; identify the strengths and obstacles to active multidisciplinary cooperation; monitor change by making a follow-up self-assessment later; make comparisons with other cities and countries. The self-assessment presents an electronic evaluation form and provides a feedback report based on the assessment. The report provides a detailed statement-based description of the given city’s capacity for cross-sectoral cooperation and the needed steps to take.

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Model for cross-sectoral cooperation for integrated and sustainable urban policies.

The model provides a framework and a systematic approach for cross-sectoral cooperation. It focuses on the process of cooperation and guides through best practices. It delves into five domains: risk identification, leadership, communication, coordination and motivation. For each domain, four stages are explained: mapping, planning, implementation and assessment. The model can be used by professionals, from a variety of sectors, including for instance governmental organisations, and non-governmental organisations, that aim to engage in cross-sectoral cooperation. A list of accessible literature references, on cross-sectoral cooperation, complements the model.

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