Integrating health promotion into sustainable development goal 11: major challenges and learned lessons from Healthy Municipalities, Cities and Communities (HMC) in Brazil

ABSTRACT

The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development was approved in September 2015 and has the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a central component. The role of healthy cities in achieving the SDGs, mainly SDG 11, has been reinforced by the World Health Organization (WHO). Initiatives such as the Healthy Municipalities, Cities, and Communities (HMC) in Brazil, sponsored by WHO, could be a complementary framework to support the implementation of SDG 11 at local levels. This study draws on a qualitative methodology to examine how HMC initiatives can support the integration of health promotion into the implementation of Goal 11 at local levels in Brazil. While social participation and integration of SDGs across Master Plans seem to be enablers factors, the lack of a national strategy and the absence of an effective evaluation of the results achieved by HMC seem to have hindered the potential of HMC in Brazil and could be critical factors for the integration of health into SDG 11 at local levels. Moreover, drawing on HMC potential contributions, this research proposes a framework to integrate health promotion across SDG 11 at local levels. Findings also suggest that there are several achievements and lessons learned from the implementation of HMC that could contribute to integrating health into SDG 11 at local levels in Brazil.

KEYWORDS:

• Agenda 2030
• SDG 3
• sustainable cities
• healthy cities
• local initiatives

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the contribution of HMC experts in Brazil: Ana Maria Girotti Sperandio, Dais Rocha, Lourenço Daniel Zanardi, and Ronice Franco de Sá.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.