About Healthy Galway City
Healthy Galway City is part of the World Health Organization Healthy Cities Programme. Supported by Galway City Local Community Development Committee (LCDC), Healthy Galway City is based on engagement, collaboration and the creation of long-term innovative partnerships. The Healthy Galway City initiative is overseen by a Steering Committee (a Sub Committee of Galway City LCDC) comprising of representatives from Galway City Council, Galway City Partnership, HSE Health and Wellbeing, HSE Health Promotion and Improvement, Galway City Community Network, Galway Sports Partnership and Amach! LGBT Galway.
The Healthy Galway City Strategy 2019-2021 was launched in June 2019 by Minister Catherine Byrne, TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Health Promotion and the National Drugs Strategy. The strategy was developed following in-depth community consultation and includes seven key themes – Collaboration, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Tobacco Free Galway City, Prevention and Reduction of Alcohol Related Harm, Sexual Health, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity. The themes included in the strategy reflect national priority areas, ensuring national policies and plans are implemented locally, to meet local needs.
The vision for Healthy Galway City is
‘A city where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential, where wellbeing is valued and supported at every level of society and where health and wellbeing is shared and supported’.
The values underpinning the Healthy Galway City Strategy are:
Dignity – Care and respect for people, embracing diversity and protecting, promoting and fulfilling people’s rights. Working with people in a non-judgemental and fair manner, based on a parity of esteem.
Autonomy – Independence, self-determination, choice and a bottom-up approach. Flexibility in meeting changing, emerging and contextual needs and supporting a capacity to make choices and be involved in decision-making.
Participation – Meaningful participation in decision-making and processes of accountability. The right to be heard and to pose a challenge. Open debate in building shared visions with space for differences and compromise.
Inclusion – Enabling and recognising the right of people, in particular those experiencing disadvantage and exclusion, to participate.
Social Justice – Transparency and fairness in the distribution of economic, educational, cultural and other resources. Proactive targeted approaches to support those experiencing injustice.
Environmental Justice – Recognising the right to a clean, safe, and sustained environment for this and future generations. Concern for climate change and its impacts, in particular on marginalised groups and communities.
These values have been adapted from the Galway City LCDC Equality and Human Rights Statement and were identified as central to the development and implementation of the Healthy Galway City Strategy.
The Healthy Galway City initiative began in 2006 with involvement in the World Health Organization Healthy Cities Network and continued since 2016 with the National Healthy Cities and Counties of Ireland Network. The National Healthy Cities and Counties of Ireland Network aims to develop a structure to support Local Authorities to implement Healthy Ireland, the national framework for action to improve the health and wellbeing of the Irish population, at a local level.
In 2017, the Government of Ireland introduced a Healthy Ireland fund to support the implementation of Healthy Ireland objectives at the local level. Administered by the Department of Health, the primary aim of the Healthy Ireland fund is to support innovative, cross-sectoral, evidence-based projects and initiatives that support the implementation of key national policies in areas of physical activity, healthy weight, tobacco free, sexual health, mental health and alcohol harm prevention and reduction.
Local Policy and Plans
The Galway City Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) is responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing a coherent and integrated approach to local and community development. The LCDC has a significant role in the development and implementation of the Healthy Galway City Strategy to promote and improve the health and wellbeing of people living in Galway City.
The Galway City Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP), which is the plan of the LCDC, was published in 2015. The mission of the LECP is that Galway will be a successful City Region with a creative, inclusive and innovative ecosystem in place to ensure its sustainable development into the future. The LECP contains five high level goals:
a world-class, creative city region
an innovative city
an equal and inclusive city
a sustainable, resilient urban environment that is the regional capital of the West
a city that promotes the health and well-being of all its people
The Healthy Galway City Strategy is in line with, and will support the implementation of existing actions and develop actions to complement, the LECP and other relevant local plans and strategies, including and the Community Healthcare West Healthy Ireland Implementation Plan 2018-2022.
The Sustainable Development Goals
In September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all 193 Members States of the United Nations. The 2030 Agenda is a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030.
The final SDG, Goal 17, calls for strengthened partnerships and collaboration to implement the goals and achieve their targets. SDGs provide a critical framework for Healthy Galway City as they reflect the intersectional nature of factors that impact on health. This Healthy Galway City Strategy will contribute to the implementation of the SDGs at the local level.