About – CityMove

About CityMove

People living in urban areas around the world face the common challenge of being sufficiently physically active to benefit their physical and mental health. Cities are associated with lower physical activity, access to unhealthy diets, and overweight and obesity. Sedentary behaviour, as well as unhealthy diets and poor air quality, are fueling an epidemic of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory conditions, and diabetes. NCDs are the leading cause of death globally, but environmental factors and lifestyle choices can encourage less sedentary lifestyles and significantly reduce NDCs.

CityMove (City based actions to stimulate active Movement for health) seeks to research the impact of active and healthier urban environments on reducing the prevalence of NCDs. With the support of 9 organisations and 50 international researchers, the impact of 13 physical activity actions will be studied in six cities across three continents —Europe, Africa, and Latin America—. CityMove seeks to implement and adapt the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) and develop a framework to evaluate the transferability and scalability of the elements and actions that increase physical activity in the least active or vulnerable groups.

CityMove is funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 Programme (3.6 million EUR) and is committed to expanding its reach by including additional cities and scaling successful actions. By sharing cross-contextual lessons learned and tailoring efforts to local needs, CityMove aspires to establish scalable models for health promotion that cities worldwide can adopt.

Objectives

Develop a comprehensive and comparative city - GAPPA Theory of Change.

Improve the utilisation of collected data as a tool to support successful implementation.

Adapt the city-GAPPA to six cities through engagement with local stakeholders.

Generate cross-contextual evidence on implementation, evaluation and scalability through a Multi-Criteria Decision Assessment tool for all actions.

Support cities in the successful implementation of early phase city-GAPPA actions through research in Living Labs.

Generate global capacity on best implementation practices and transferability of city-GAPPA through Communities of Practice.

Assess feasibility, adoption, reach and sustainability of selected city-GAPPA actions.

Objectives

Develop a comprehensive and comparative city - GAPPA Theory of Change.

Adapt the city-GAPPA to six cities through engagement with local stakeholders.

Support cities in the successful implementation of early phase city-GAPPA actions through research in Living Labs.

Assess feasibility, adoption, reach and sustainability of selected city-GAPPA actions.

Improve the utilisation of collected data as a tool to support successful implementation.

Generate cross-contextual evidence on implementation, evaluation and scalability through a Multi-Criteria Decision Assessment tool for all actions.

Generate global capacity on best implementation practices and transferability of city-GAPPA through Communities of Practice.

Cities, NDCs

and Physical

Activity

The potential of cities to reduce noncommunicable diseases (NDCs) risk is underutilised. Cities are home to over half of the world’s population – expected to reach two-thirds by 2050 –, and are associated with lower physical activity, access to unhealthy diets, and overweight and obesity. City environments are key determinants of NCDs. Density, transport systems, street designs and land use patterns impact NCDs through their influence on air quality, physical activity, and blood pressure. However, the implementation of health-promoting actions is slow and unequal, disfavouring low- and middle-income countries, and under-resourced neighbourhoods.

Cities are thus both a threat to health and a potential enabler of change. Given the untapped potential of cities to promote physical activity, CityMove focuses on adapting GAPPA to the city-level, city-GAPPA.

Determinants of Physical activity at the level of the individual, social, built, and natural environment

Vision

CityMove’s Vision is to support cities around the world to implement, monitor, and evaluate evidence-based actions across four domains: Active People, Active Societies, Active Environments, and Active Systems, and to meet the WHO GAPPA’s target of a 15% reduction in Physical Inactivity by 2030.

Global Action Plan on Physical Activity

(GAPPA)

The ‘Global action plan on physical activity 2018–2030: more active people for a healthier world’ guides countries and provides a framework of 20 policy actions to increase physical activity at all levels.