YEARBOOK
2000
In order to evaluate the activities of the organisations operating in
its member towns, the Hungarian Association of Healthy Cities
has developed a method which is in good agreement with the international
evaluating method of the Healthy Cities Project managed by
the European Office of the World Health Organisation (hereinafter WHO
EURO), and, on the other hand, offers a good opportunity to continuously
monitor the work and activities of the members of the HAHC on the long
run.
This is the first time that these evaluation methods have been applied,
it can, therefore, be considered as the nation-wide testing of the method
and the experiences gained during this pilot period can be useful for
further development and improved efficiency. As a result of this process
we shall be in the position to develop a quality assurance system, which
might be capable of assessing the activities of the member towns with
the help of standard criteria. It will also become possible to develop
and operate a local efficiency measuring system, which can increase the
operating efficiency of not only the member towns, but the national association
as well.
The basis of the evaluating system is a questionnaire, containing question
groups by topics, in order to survey the organisational, infrastructural,
strategic and other changes that occurred during the year under investigation;
as well as the programmes organised or implemented together with their
characteristics. This evaluating system was first used to assess the operation
of the member towns in the year 2000.
18 out of the 21 members filled in the questionnaires and made them available
for the evaluation in 2000, because 2 towns joined the association in
2001only, and 1 town has failed to provide the answers. Taking this into
consideration we can establish that the survey of the member towns was
all inclusive, but the analysis was extended only to the questionnaires
of the 18 towns.
The final report of the evaluation process is contained the following
three parts:
The first part was meant to elicit information about the main features
of the organisations operating in the member towns, and included the following
topics:
ˇ General
characteristics of the local projects
ˇ Human resources
of the local projects
ˇ Local relationships
of the organisations
ˇ Infrastructural
background of the organisations
ˇ Economic
background of the organisations
ˇ Partnerships built by the organisations
The second part
collected data on the commitment to developing a shared vision for the
city with a health plan and work on specific themes.
The third part focused on the investment in formal and informal networking and co-operation.
All the above listed areas are in accordance with the tasks and the related preferences of the towns participating in the WHO Healthy Cities project and demonstrate that the evaluation system is suitable for exploring the interrelation between expectations and actual activities, i.e. the evaluation of the activities at both local and national levels.
Finally, please find the summary and the closing remarks of our work.