On May 10, 2012 a HCCZ Thematic Section dedicated to the issue of strategic planning and management took place at Novotneho Lavka in Prague. The event was attended by 80 persons, primarily by representatives of municipalities, but also of companies and organisations that deal with the issue actively. The attendants of the event familiarised with approved methods and experience that can be employed in preparation or update of development strategies in the cities, municipalities or regions. The event introduced concrete examples from the practice of Dobris or Chrudim, cities that work efficiently with connection of strategic plan and local plan, monitor the connection to the budget and have created a functional strategic team. The obstacles and challenges of strategic plan preparation have been articulated in the contribution by city district of Prague - Ujezd nad Lesy. The mayor of Krizanky municipality presented the way of how to handle strategy preparation in a small municipality. The aim of the event was to also show how strategic planning and management help in practice on the national level. There were contributions by the Ministry for Local Development in the very connection with preparation of a new programme period, news related to the methodology of public strategy preparation, assigned by the Ministry of Finance or related to Strategy Database, operated by the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic in collaboration with the department of local development.

The seminar on the subject of strategic planning and management was a part of the project " Strategic Management in Communities - Quality and Effective", financed with resources of the ESF through the programme of Human Resources and Employment and CZ state budget.

More information (in CZECH) including a photo-gallery and presentation is available here.

On April 24 2012, the Regional Office of Vysocina Region in Jihlava hosted the spring meeting of HCCZ General Assembly that discussed important topics related to the Healthy City Project and Local Agenda 21. 6 new HCCZ members have been introduced as well as the results of association's work on the national and international levels. The General Assembly also approved the Economy for 2011, Annual Closing of the Books for 2011 and also Annual Report for 2011. HCCZ General Assembly meeting was preceded by special workshop on the subject of strategic planning, attended by more than 50 representatives of the HCCZ member municipalities and regions. The seminar also included a presentation by HCCZ expert consultant, Mr Milan Pucek, who has been dealing with the issue on the local and national levels in the long run, it also introduced the project of "Methodology of Public Strategies Formulation" realised by the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with Ernst & Young and other partners. The event took place as a part of the above stated project, supported by ESF through programme of Human Resources and Employment and by state budget.

Healthy City Forum is a regular meeting of the city, municipality or region inhabitants, self-government representatives, but also that of schools, non-profit organisations or companies that operate within a given location. It is not the "mayor informs" type of event, but on the contrary, it is an open discussion at thematic tables where everyone can express one's opinion and bring some impulse to be dealt with. In the course of this meeting the participants determine the "10P – ten problems" in a location of one's residence. The list of problems is consequently verified in a survey, usually participated in by a wider range of inhabitants. The verified list then passes to the local authorities who include the solutions to individual topics in the planned documents including the budget. The Forums take place annually, the public meetings thus enable the citizens to get information on how their inputs from previous years had been dealt with.

In the course of the first half of this year, the Forum took place in 25 Healthy Cities, more events of this type have been planned for the autumn months. There has also been a number Youth Healthy City Forums that have similar progress and engage children and young people from the given city. Children's forums have been prepared in collaboration with the Centre of Environmental Education SEVER.

The database of Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic, which is available at www.DobraPraxe.cz (partly translated into EN – www.good-practice.eu), contains a number of inspiring examples from the practice in cities, municipalities, sub-regions and regions. Currently you can use it to go through more than 180 best practice examples from various areas of life in the municipalities, such as the living environment, transportation, social services, free time etc. The database also deals with typical solutions or common topics of Local Agenda 21 21 and Healthy City Project, in addition to this, it enables participation in the so called thematic groups. In the Database you can also find so called „bits and pieces" – short, well arranged examples of what has proven successful in practice and what may serve as inspiration to the others.

The following new examples have been added to the Best Practice Database in 2012:

DOBRIS: Combination of strategic municipal documents in practice

STUDENKA: Electronic construction journal

LITOMERICE: Children's municipal government

KLATOVY: Christmas Charity Fair for day care centre

LIBEREC REGION: Application of health impact assessment in the strategic documents

Over 300 mayors and municipal health leaders met in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation on 14–16 June 2012 for the Annual Business and Technical Conference of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network and Network of European National Healthy Cities Networks. At the Conference, participants shared solutions for creating urban environments that nurture health and well-being throughout life.

The European Network comprises almost 100 member cities as well as 30 national healthy city networks. Over 60 case studies were presented, many of which can be adapted elsewhere.

More information about the conference is available here.