THE VALENCIAN COMMUNITY HEALTHY CITIES NETWORK - ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS

In 1986 WHO-Euro began to develop the Healthy Cities project which was later extended to Spain, in this paper the factors related to the ini tial development of the Healthy Cities Project in the member towns and cities of the Valencian Community Healthy Cities Network, and the lev el of their development will be described. The project began in 1987 a nd the Network, at the time of this study (March 1991), was made up of 48 towns and cities. The instrument used to assess the process of the project development was a questionnaire administered by personal inte rview with the three people responsible for the project in each city: the Mayor, Health Councillor and Health Officer. A score was establish ed to measure the level of development of the project in each city whi ch included performance of the health diagnosis and plan, the existenc e of intersectoral committees and the creation of channels of communit y participation. A large proportion of the cities (72%) have carried o ut the Health Diagnosis; 26% of the cities have intersectoral committe es and community participation is as yet in the initial stages. Politi cal parties' support of their city's membership in the Network, has be en almost unanimous with only three exceptions. Resources allocated to the project are not yet constant, although there is important support from different levels, and on the part of local and autonomous instit utions. Differences can be observed in the level of development of the cities which make up the Network, related partly to length of time of membership, to the size of the city and to other factors difficult to assess.