Spring Czech Healthy Cities School

Financial resources for cities and towns, quality of local authorities, sustainable development and its indicators, fair decision-making on construction, planning events in schools ... this and many other topics were addressed during the Healthy Cities School in Litomerice. On Monday, 16 March 2016, more than 130 participants were brought together in Litomerice Healthy City to attend the opening seminar of the Czech Healthy Cities National Network Spring School.

The participants were given a warm welcome by the mayor of Litomerice Ladislav Chlupáč and by the councillor Petr Hermann, who is also Czech Healthy Cities Network chairman. The morning session was opened by David Sláma from the Ministry of the Interior who informed the attendees about involvement of cities and municipalities in implementation of methods of quality management, possibilities of assessment of their offices and also about financing to support their activities and services for citizens.

The session devoted to inspirational examples from practice covered interesting contributions concerning sustainable urban energy management. The cities concerned were offered membership in the Energy Managers Association. Other topics were discussed as well: global responsibility of cities and municipalities, active involvement of high school students in public affairs, calls of the Via Foundation and the Green Circle for fair decision-making on construction. The afternoon session dealt with sustainable development systemic support, presentation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), activities of the Government Council for Sustainable Development and the related preparation of the Strategy 2030 of the Czech Republic and the sustainable development indicators.

During the second day of the Spring School, the participants were divided into three training and discussion groups. The coordinators “beginners” took part in a practical training session focused on public participation, effective communication of LA21, what methods are the best to be used and what should be avoided. The advanced participants dealt with sustainable development audits, their benefits and difficulties in their processing. The representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs presented current financial possibilities for cities and municipalities intended for public administration quality projects. Other topics which were discussed included participative budgeting, sociological surveys and opinion polls. The final day of the Spring School was devoted to the use of the Healthy Cities DataPlan system and the internal professional environment for LA21 coordinators.

“What is the most important about the Spring Schools is the possibility of meeting colleagues from different towns. We learn best from concrete examples from practice, inspiration but also from what didn´t work elsewhere and how to do it better. This time, we were interested in how to work with the public forums’ results verified by an opinion poll or sociological survey, and we shared our experience with participative budgeting,” said Rita Vlckova, Litomerice Healthy City coordinator.

Presentations and photos are available HERE (in CZECH).

Event supported by a grant from Switzerland through the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union.