Development of Owariasahi City by applying the SDGs to our city plans and programs
Description
With the rapid aging of the Japanese population, we must extend healthy life expectancy and develop an environment to support this. <br />
The WHO encourages us to focus on Goal 3, Health Promotion, involve the other goals and achieve all 17 SDGs. <br />
Owariasahi City joined the Alliance for Healthy Cities in 2004 from its inauguration. <br />
Physical health, mental health and the city’s health are promoted comprehensively based on the Owariasahi Healthy City Program and our General Plan. <br />
After the UN’s adoption of the SDGs, we studied its contents, compiled and applied our findings to the administration, and communicated them.
In Owariasahi, we decided to sort out and study how our efforts for city development relate to the SDGs and apply the findings to future city development.<br />
We conducted our study from two perspectives: 1) city plans and SDGs and 2) programs and SDGs. <br />
In our study from the first perspective, we found that our General Plan and Healthy City Program share many features and points with the SDGs, and that they are widely related to the 17 SDGs. Therefore, we understood that by adding the perspective of the SDGs in reviewing our administrative plans, we can improve the overall quality of our plans. In our study from the second perspective, we chose one of our programs to study how it relates to the SDGs. The Asahi Health Meister Program was begun in 2008 and has expanded and developed during ten years’ time. We found that it contributes to achieving many more SDGs than in 2008. Thus, we saw that by adding the SDGs perspective in planning and reviewing programs, we would be able to implement them more effectively and efficiently. These two studies served as reassessments of our original efforts in dealing with local issues, planning and implementation from a global perspective of the SDGs. We recognized the value of this reassessment process itself, but also that we can expect promising outcomes by applying the SDGs perspective to future city development.
Studies to examine the relationship with the SDGs were conducted from the following two perspectives:
1) City Plans and the SDGs
The periods for the General Plan and Healthy City Program are both determined as 10 years. Administrative evaluation systems wherein current conditions and target values are measured numerically are put to use in the management cycle of plan making and program implementation. In the administrative evaluation system, intentions of residents and other statistical data are collected and assessed every year. Based on the results of the evaluation, the city’s budget, staff, and other resources are allocated, and at the same time, roles played by the city and other subjects are reviewed. These outcomes are publicized in detail each year, and serve as the basis in building partnerships with various subjects.
2) The Asahi Health Meister Program and the SDGs
We examined how our Asahi Health Meister Program, begun in 2008 and has reached its tenth year, relates to the SDGs. In this program citizens are awarded points for taking part in activities that promote health and citizens who have earned a certain number of points are awarded as Health Meisters. The purpose of the program is to encourage citizens to make continual efforts to promote their health. In the first award ceremony held in 2009, 22 citizens were awarded as Health Meisters. This number grew by six times to 130 citizens in 2018. The number of citizens involved in health promotion has grown substantially with each year. We are proud to note that in April 2018 we awarded 10 citizens as Gold Meisters for earning the award for ten consecutive years.
The Asahi Health Meister Program is indeed a program that symbolizes Owariasahi City’s efforts to make a Healthy City.
Owariasahi City’s General Plan and Healthy City Program share many features with the SDGs and we have taken the approaches in the SDGs a step ahead of the SDGs. For example, we use the idea of back casting in plan formulation and make our plans from the ideal vision of the future, and numerical targets to monitor and manage progress.
We also sorted out the relationship between our guidelines and programs in the General Plan and the Healthy City Program by the 17 goals of the SDGs, and found that our city’s efforts cover all 17 SDGs and that they are widely related to the SDGs. (See Image File 1.)
[2. The Asahi Health Meister Program and SDGs]
When we began the Asahi Health Meister Program in 2008, we distributed "Challenge Cards" to participants and gave points onto the card for taking part in health lectures and walking events. At the time, this project could achieve SDGs No.3, 12, and 13.
We made a major renewal in 2017 to improve effectiveness. The numbers of events and programs included in the Program grew 10 times from 12 to 119, and the card became a 45-page booklet.
Events related to the keyword “we all support each other” in the General Plan were newly included, adding neighborhood association, community, and volunteer activities.
Many Japanese local governments introduce point systems for health promotion, but few include neighborhood association and community activities like we do. This is a distinctive approach of Owariasahi since it aspires to improve the “health of the City” as well as physical and mental health of its citizens.
From the perspective of SDGs, the program now achieves more goals including 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17. As supporting companies now provide the prizes won by lottery for participants who achieved certain points, those companies can gain recognition of the citizens, leading to achieving SDGs 8 and 9.
Moreover, from 2018, we made a section in the handbook for children to think for themselves and take actions to promote health from a young age. We encouraged all elementary and junior high school students to get involved through the Board of Education. This step coincides with the SDGs “for all.”
The city’s program has been arranged and developed in many ways by residents, too. In 2018, one neighbourhood association with over 100 households distributed the Health Meister handbooks to its residents and encouraged them to take part in health development programs held by the association. They were worried about the aging of its residents and lack of connection among themselves, started their own activities, which spurred participation by more people in association activities. We look forward to further expansion by other local governments and neighbourhood associations. (See Image File 2.)
Under this arrangement, we publicize the names of the supporting corporations in our city’s website and on posters and leaflets. The supporters can improve their image and also acquire new customers which in turn contribute to promoting local businesses and economic growth.
This year in 2019, both our General Plan and Program for Healthy City reach the middle of their 10 year period, and will undergo mid-term reviews. We will add the perspective of SDGs in their reviews. We are confident that this will be highly effective in both planning and program implementation.
Many local governments in Japan have programs similar to our Asahi Health Meister Program. However, many of them maintain limited subjects as was the case for our Asahi Health Meister Program in its beginning years. We believe that by learning from how we developed the program in Owariasahi, they will be able to extend the effects of their programs and as a result of this, contribute to achieving the SDGs.
In this aim, we have presented the contents of this paper at the Conference for the Alliance for Healthy Cities, Japan Chapter held in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture in July 2018 before 37 local government members. We also gave a lecture on the subject to local governments and corporations in November 2018 in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture.
On an international basis, too, we have given lectures to local government officials from abroad visiting our city from Thailand in July 2018, and Malaysia in September 2018. We also gave three lectures on SDGs at the Global Conference for the Alliance for Healthy Cities held in Kuching, Malaysia in October 2018. At this conference we won an award for our paper relating to the SDGs, and we have been transmitting worldwide our efforts for achieving the SDGs through our programs to make Owariasahi a Healthy City.
It is our hope that our efforts will be shared worldwide and that the ideals of the SDGs and efforts to achieve them will spread around the globe. (See Image File 3.)
We have found through our studies from two perspectives that our efforts for making Owariasahi a Healthy City and the goals of the SDGs are closely related. Therefore our conclusion is that the SDGs approach can be widely applied to efforts for a Healthy City by other local governments as well. <br />
By adding the perspective of the SDGs in city development, we can come up with new ways of thinking, and as a result, make progress toward achieving the SDGs naturally. Therefore, we shall widely apply the perspective of the SDGs in our administrative activities in Owariasahi, as well as promote the merits of doing so to other local governments. <br />
It is becoming significantly important to approach people who have little or no interest and do not care about health. Making a Healthy City should aim at making an environment wherein people who live there become healthy without realizing it, whether or not they have interest in health. <br />
By combining the SDGs perspective with efforts for the development of a Healthy City, we should be able to involve people of all generations in the creation of a city where they can and would like to keep living in.
http://www.alliance-healthycities.com/htmls/awards/index_awards.html
Name of award: WHO-West Pacific Regional Office Healthy Cities Best Practice Recognition
Title of paper: Making an accessible city with the involvement of citizens
Outline of paper: Making railway stations barrier-free, operation of the city bus system, land readjustment projects, involvement of diverse residents, planning and numerical targets, relationship with
SDGS & Targets
Deliverables & Timeline
Resources mobilized
Partnership Progress
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| 14.1 | By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution |
| 14.3 | Minimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levels |
| 17.14 | Enhance policy coherence for sustainable development |
Feedback
Action Network
Share
Timeline
Entity
Region
- Asia and Pacific
Geographical coverage
Website/More information
Countries
Contact Information
Yosuke Taniguchi, Assistant Manager, Promotion Office for Healthy City