Partnership structures in the WHO European Healthy Cities project

The development of new partnership structures for public health is an important goal of the World Health Organization's Healthy Cities project which covers a network of European municipalities. A review was carried out of the partnership structures and key changes arising from the project, based on the responses of 44 cities to a structured questionnaire, interviews with 24 city representatives and publications from the project from 1988 to 2003. Cities reported elaborate partnership mechanisms usually combining formal and informal working methods. Differences between cities could partly be related to differences in the way that local government is organized within countries and partly differences in local choices and circumstances. A relationship between the effectiveness of partnership arrangements and delivery of key elements of the project was discernable. Most cities reported having changed their processes for decision-making and planning for health as a result of membership of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network. One of the most potent stimuli for these changes was the action to which a city had committed as part of its membership of the Network.