Multi-sector policy action to create activity-friendly environments for children: A multiple-case study

Measuring stages of health in all policies on a local level: The applicability of a maturity model

“…Among the 16 participating municipalities, more than half were in the first two stages of maturity: four in Stage I (recognized), seven in Stage II (considered), indicating the difficulty of establishing HiAP. This is also observed in other Dutch municipalities [17,30].…”

“…In this study, conditions of Stage IV seem particularly distinctive, such as high sense of urgency of the health inequalities problem, sufficient support of the Council, and an optimal effort of the municipal councillor. Also, previous studies mentioned a positive political context at the municipal level as an important driver for intersectoral collaboration [30,36]. In the international literature there are indications that by targeting specific factors progress can be made in HiAP [33,37].…”

“…Like in other maturity models [29] every maturity stage requires the use of different management strategies, such as steering on awareness, persons, processes, results, and continuous improvement [23]. Based on national and international studies we identified necessary conditions (critical factors) for establishing HiAP and applied these to the various stages [7,8,17,18,30]. As shown in Table 3, a distinction is made between individual factors (uniform language, existence of good relations, positive experiences), organization factors (shared interest, visible health implications of the sector, sufficient resources, adequate timing), and political factors (high sense of urgency, sufficient support, and input municipal councillor).…”

Current Trends in Childhood Obesity Research

“…Policies with high levels of cultural and community acceptability, as well as political and financial feasibility, were most favorable across sectors. In the same project, it also was reported that increasing awareness of policy effectiveness and positively perceived political context facilitated multisectoral policy action [99]. Olstad et al [100] similarly identified the importance of intersectoral linkages and communication to enhance the implementation of nutritional guidelines across childcare, school, and recreation settings.…”

Challenging Health in All Policies, an action research study in Dutch municipalities

“…For legitimization of public health, the environmental dimension of health should be more explicitly defined [38], thereby offering opportunities for HiAP proposals. This has to be explained by experts such as the regional PHS, because policy stakeholders often are not aware of the health impact of certain measures taken by, for instance, spatial planning [39]. To counteract the weakness of the Public Health policy framework, a strong and long term commitment is needed from mayors and municipal councilors including instituting decisive measures and resources regarding HiAP [30,40].…”