Belfast - healthy city - Audio

Ilona Kickbusch on how the Healthy Cities Movement began in the mid nineteen eighties as a European initiative.

Ilona Kickbusch on how the initiative spread out from Europe to the rest of the world, and is particularly important in South America.

Joan Devlin of Belfast Healthy Cities on the historical high levels of deprivation in Belfast.

Joan Devlin on how Belfast set out a five year plan dealing with issues such as urban planning and healthy aging.

David Stewart, director of public health, EHSSB, reveals how Belfast is influenced by what is happening in the UK and in Eire.

David Stewart on how public Health policy in Belfast is also significantly influenced by new European initiatives and legislation.

Joan Devlin on how public health in Northern Ireland has improved in recent years but in parts of Belfast there are still significant levels of deprivation.

Joan Devlin explains that there is now recognition in Northern Ireland than health issues have to be tackled in a broad way taking in areas such as housing and education.

David Stewart on how Northern Ireland's size is advantageous when it comes to cross-sector work and experimental projects.

David Stewart on how Northern Ireland is disadvantaged by the British government's Barnett Formula and its complex local government system

David Stewart on how Northern Ireland's sectarian divide can throw up unexpected health issues such as problems finding sufficient space to exercise.

Joan Devlin on the consultation document produced to try to get organisations to think about health in all aspects of their planning.

Joan Devlin on how Belfast has been successful in implementing its Healthy Cities programme but there is a lot of work still to be done.

Mary Black of the NW Belfast Health Action Zone explains how Northern Ireland's difficult political situation added an extra layer of challenge to implementing the Healthy Cities policy,

Mary Black on how Health Action Zones were set up in Belfast to address significant inequalities in health in different parts of the city.

Mary Black on how health workers in Belfast realised that the real challenge was to bring together different stakeholders and get them to work together in an integrated way.

Joan Devlin on how Belfast Healthy Cities is a model for further partnership initiatives.

Mary Black on how, for partnerships to succeed, there must be careful consideration of all the different players involved and a strong guiding vision.

Mary Black on how the Belfast Healthy Cities project has never had sufficient funding of its own so it has always needed to find ways to lever funding out of a variety of partners.

Kathleen Feenan talks about The Women's Health Information Group, a successful voluntary network of women who are trained to distribute information about a variety of health related issues.