Municipality
of Horsens & Health International
The Municipality
of Horsens has an urban population of 56,000 and is on the
list of the ten biggest cities in Denmark. It is situated
on the East Coast of Jutland, Denmark.
A Danish local
Authority serving 56,000 inhabitants with a range of public
services in a successful, attractive and dynamic City with
an active Trade and Industry Council increasing International
business, and a track record in International networking on
experience exchange particularly in the Urban Health arena.
Horsens, together
with its in-house health agency, Health International, has
been working in Bangladesh for a number of years in health
promotion work, and has an office base there. This experience
will provide our partnership with the relevant skills base
for work in the field, and to develop partnership office in
Sylhet for this project. In addition, the established links
that Health International has with the various agencies and
NGO's in Bangladesh (and in other parts of Asia) will allow
this project to build on these links and develop the capacity
building work of this project.
Despite its age
of more than a thousand years, the city is still impressive
with its old renewed buildings in the city centre. Urban renewal
is high on the list of priorities in the city, which has been
awarded the coveted Urban Renewal Prize.
In recent years
the city has been collecting prizes and honours, and in 1989
it was named Enterprise City of the Year. In 1992 Horsens
received the Nordic Health Prize on the basis of its many
health-promoting activities, which really took off when Horsens
became the first city in Denmark to become involved in the
WHO Health City 2000 project. Horsens involvement in the project
has forged many international links that benefit the city
and its trade and industry.
Recently the health
theme has been supplemented with an ecological purchasing
policy for the public sector, and a forum for environment
has been established. Members of the forum are individual
citizens and NGO's .
For the business
world, Horsens is an attractive city. With what one is tempted
to call a brilliant location in terms of traffic logistics,
this fjord city has in recent years seen a great commercial
and cultural development. The high concentration of business-related
educational courses also means that a well-qualified workforce
is always available.
For many years
the City Council and the Trade and Industry Council have been
active catalysts for increased internationalisation of the
business world of the city. With the aid of the mayor many
doors have been opened to difficult markets.
The most important
sectoral competence areas are electronics, packaging, food,
iron and non-ferrous metals, and furniture. The high technology
companies are growing particularly rapidly, and it is not
without reason that Horsens has become known as Denmark's
Number One City for electronics
Horsens, together
with its in-house health agency, Health International, has
been involved for a number of years in health promotion work,
and has an office base in Bangladesh. Since 1992, when Health
International was developed, the company has worked with numerous
organisations, including the World Health Organisation. The
company is a profit making company, but does involve itself
in non-profit tasks because it wishes to be involved in the
sharing of experiences & best practice on urban health
issues throughout all parts of the world. In addition, the
company has been successfully carrying out many projects funded
by the European Commission. Together with Health International,
Horsens has implemented specific action on health issues and
in particular, urban health.
Horsens was one
of the very first cities in Denmark, which decided to put
emphasis to international networking on experience exchange.
The city has managed and participated in several major projects
implemented by its private company and funded by the European
Commission, the World Bank, the Danish Government, and the
World Health Organisation.
The expertise disseminated
in these projects come from 10 years of integrated work on
Urban Health in Horsens.
The local organisation
structure set up by the City Council and tested thoroughly
for the last 10 years makes the basis for the local success
with urban health. The organisational structure (Healthy Cities
Resource Centre), the long-term strategy (political commitment),
the short-term health and environmental activities/projects
with a very high degree of citizen participation constitute
the rational behind working with urban sustainable development.
The success of
Horsens has most recently resulted in the designation of WHO
Collaborating Centre for Training and Capacity Building in
close co-operation with the World Health Organisations Regional
Office for Europe.
This is the background
of Horsens for being a partner in the Asia Urbs bid. We contribute
our expertise to setting up shared vision and action plan,
for developing the capacity of the Sylhet City Corporation, and
for creating a partnership model at a local level.
Horsens has good
professional links with Bangladesh and experience of delivering
health projects in Bangladesh through our partner Danida (Danish
International Development Agency) They have had an experienced
project manager based in Bangladesh as adviser for Women's
activities and Health, Nutrition and Family Planning in the
Noakhali Integrated Rural Development Project (NIRDP). NIRDP
covered the 3 districts of Noakhali, Feni and Laksmipur, a
population of approximately 5 million. The project was an
integrated co-operation between national government, government
agencies, local governments and some NGO's. The project consisted
of several components. The Project manager (Lis Aliminde)
was Head of Women's Development Unit. Responsibilities were
for implementation of service support for women and women's
programmes in terms of recruitment policies, legal aid, review
of gender policies, target group selection, preparation of
development plans, liaison with NGO's, government agencies
and municipalities, management, development and training of
female project staff.
Other aspects of
the project included planning, implementation and evaluation
of activities of health, nutrition and family planning programme,
including the training of village health workers and traditional
birth attendants. Links were maintained with Ministry of Health
and Family Planning, Civil Surgeons, Municipal authorities
and NGO's. Planning, arranging and conducting workshops and
seminars on health and health management was a key aspect.
Presently there
are links with the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation
in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM), an
enterprise of the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh (DAB)
and operating along with the institute a 550 bed private hospital
with priority for the diabetic patients.
Horsens has close
links with DANIDA which supports several projects in Bangladesh
e.g. construction of highways. These strong links means that
we can call upon such partners for technical assistance and
expertise. Horsens strength and expertise lies in the ability
to develop links with and draw in the NGO's in Bangladesh
as demonstrated through recent confirmation and support from
the Centre For Cultural Development and RED BARNET (Danish
Save the Children Fund) and Bangladesh Small Scale and Cottage
Industries Corporation - Dhaka.
The Centre for
Cultural Development may together with other agencies already
working in Sylhet may be used in a volunteer capacity to assist
in some aspects of this project. It is hoped that this project
will work in collaboration with all the agencies, which are
working in the field. This work may range from direct joint
workings with some agencies to establishing new links, which
will be developed later in the project.
Health International
is a private share holding company. Under Danish legislation,
municipalities are allowed to be shareholders of private companies.
It is owned by the City of Horsens, the Union of Danish Nurses,
a pension-fund company and Carl Bro Gruppe, a private consulting
company.
In 1992, in order
to provide operational management to international experience
exchange projects regarding urban health issues, the Municipality
of Horsens established the Health City Foundation whose staff
were former members of the municipality. In 1998 in order
to strengthen the expertise of its staff and to give the company
a stronger foundation, Horsens Healthy City Foundation merged
with the Union of Danish Nurses, a pension-fund company and
Carl Bro Gruppe to become Health International.
Health International
has worked, as a representative of the Municipality of Horsens,
with numerous organisations, including the WHO Collaborating
Centre, Horsens (World Health Organisation), the Resource
Centre for Urban Health, and has successfully carried out
many projects funded by the European Commission.
It functions as
follows:
The Municipality
of Horsens is contracted to provide expertise and operational
management on urban health projects. The Municipality then
delegates specific tasks to Health International who has
the necessary expertise in this field. Health International
carries out these tasks on a non-profit basis for organisations
such as the World Health Organisation and the European Commission.
Health International believes in the sharing of experiences
& best practices in specialist fields. Of course as
a private share holding company, Health International must
also make a profit. This is done through work and Consultancy
to organisations such as the World Bank, the Danish Ministries
and to Consultancy companies etc.
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