Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities

About the Program

: Photo: Kim Unertl, courtesy of
Flickr Creative Commons.

Now in its third year ICLEI Oceania's Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities program works, in partnership with local governments, to build capacity to effectively meet social sustainability goals.

Building vibrant, resilient, healthy and safe communities is a cornerstone of sustainable development in the 21st century. Social, climatic and economic changes require greater planning across all levels of government to prevent negative impacts and to encourage healthy communities. This includes impacts such as:

the ageing population alongside a growing prevalence of chronic disease in the community
the health implications of climate change
communications and technology changes that alter how we interact and engage in community life
the potential for widening inequality emerging in a time of global economic downturn.

There is clearly a pivotal role for local government to play in our communities and for them to build national wellbeing through creating safe and healthy communities.

What is the focus of Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities?

Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities has prioritised five areas of health and wellbeing:

For more information see the Program Areas page.

How does Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities work?

The overarching program, made up initially of these program areas, is built upon providing a strategic milestone framework that enables an evidence-based approach to making decisions and reporting annually.

Diagram 2 outlines how each program area will utilise a five-milestone framework that:

Establishes an inventory to map local health, social and environment data
Sets local goals and gains political support
Develops strategic and evidence-based action plans
Implements actions, with a focus on equity, effectiveness and efficiency
Monitors and reviews progress.

The CSHC program design framework

ICLEI Oceania has developed a high quality, capacity building methodology to assist local governments address social sustainability goals effectively and equitably.

Our program approach to address alcohol-related harms is supported by the National Local Government Drug and Alcohol Advisory Committee, the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors, and the Australian Local Government Association. This approach has been endorsed and commended the the Prime Minister’s advisory committee, the Australian National Council on Drugs.

You can download the introductory chapter of our Alcohol-related Harms Management Data Inventory Toolkit [PDF 605 KB] to gain further insight into our program methodology.

The ICLEI Oceania capacity building methodology supports local governments by assisting them to make decisions that result in attention to a cost benefit case for action.

Through participation in Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities, Councils will be supported through the development of a data management strategy (milestone 1) including the use of data sharing agreements, database support and technical skills to aid strategic use of data in planning. By understanding data of local significance, councils can implement strategies that meet both their internal and community priorities.

Milestone 2 aligns with the council political process to ensure a whole of council commitment to follow through with an appropriate strategic approach. A suite of strategies to be implemented locally, designed and based on evidence of effective and equitable actions, is developed as part of Milestone 3.

Implementation of actions are then reported on using a consistent set of indicators and reporting tools. Milestone 4 provides both internal and external evidence of the progress of implementing the strategic plans, with Milestone 5 providing an overall assessment of progress made in meeting the goal.

What support does ICLEI Oceania provide to councils?

During this establishment phase, local governments may subscribe as Foundation Councils to Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities. Leadership in health planning will be fostered with Foundation Councils, who will play an integral role in evaluating the design elements of the project.

CSHC programs identify the place management opportunities to influence health and wellbeing outcomes in order to provide measurable results for the community and reductions in council costs.

Further information

For further information or to become a Foundation Council member, please contact Peter Streker, Director – Cities for Safe and Healthy Communities.

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