Guiding Principles for Ensuring Well-Being in Cities
The English translation of our report, “Guiding Principles for Ensuring Well-Being in Cities,” is now available!
The report titled “Guiding Principles for Ensuring Well-Being in Cities” has been published as part of the project “Right to the City and Well-Being Policies for Fairer Local Government”, supported by the MATRA Program of the Consulate/Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The report aims to discuss the impact of urban policies on public health and well-being, inviting discussions and advocacy for the politics of well-being.
Written by researcher Ayça Yüksel, the report defines guiding principles to help local governments steer their decision-making and policy development processes with a focus on public health and well-being. These principles are intended to guide a municipal approach that embraces a structural, comprehensive, and holistic program, rather than providing a ready-made list of policies. The hope is that these principles will shape an inclusive approach to local governance.
The Mekanda Adalet Derneği (MAD) first addressed the concept of well-being in its 2021 report titled “Urban Transformation and Well-Being in Istanbul”. Building on this experience, the new report emphasizes the importance of incorporating the well-being perspective into all urban governance policies.
You can read the report online by clicking the link below.
Guiding Principles for Ensuring Well-Being in Cities
What is “Well-Being”?
The way our cities are governed and designed is a determinant of public health. The unseen and significant consequence of the conventional forms of governance and urbanization, which leave urban residents powerless and fail to develop integrated solutions to problems and needs, is the deterioration of public health. Examples of this include the loss of life and trauma resulting from disasters, anxiety caused by inequality and injustice, rising suicide rates due to economic hardship, chronic illnesses caused by unhealthy housing conditions, all of which demonstrate the relationship between public health and urban issues.
Health is not just a concept related to illness. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health not only as the absence of disease, but as a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being. Therefore, the concept of well-being offers a comprehensive and holistic framework for approaching health.
Evaluating cities from the perspective of well-being reveals the multi-layered dimensions of urban problems and highlights the need for a multi-dimensional understanding in policies aimed at addressing urban issues and meeting needs. It also emphasizes that urban policies should not only serve to sustain survival conditions, but also meet the requirements for leading a dignified and happy life.
A Guide for Before and After Local Elections
Local governments, responsible for the governance and design of cities, are actors who can positively or negatively affect public health through the urban policies they implement. There is a need to evaluate the health impact of urban policies from the well-being perspective and mainstream this approach in the development of local policies. This perspective highlights the importance of both the results and the processes in the policies being produced, emphasizing that municipalities should not limit their approach to health services to just spreading health services within health departments.
The report stresses that instead of populist policies that provide instant solutions to everyday problems, the well-being perspective should be embedded in all policies as a political vision and demand. It states that this report, which can serve as a guide for political parties and municipalities to transform urban policies before and after the 2024 Local Elections, serves as a starting point for discussing the layered effects of policies on city dwellers.
15 Guiding Principles for Ensuring Well-Being in Cities
The report “Guiding Principles for Ensuring Well-Being in Cities” presents 15 guiding principles to help local governments shape their urban policies with a focus on public health and well-being. These principles are listed as follows:
1.Participation and Deliberation
2.Right to Use
3.Public Benefit
4.Ecological Perspective
5.Gender Perspective
6.Inclusivity and Pluralism
7.Community and Solidarity-based
8.Rights-based
9.Integrated
10.Accessibility
11.Sustainability
12.Transparency and Accountability
13.Equity and Coexistence
14.Restorative
15.Resilient
It is stated that placing the proposed guiding principles at the center of decision-making and policy development processes will contribute to changing urban processes that negatively affect public well-being and help develop mechanisms, decisions, and policies that support well-being. This report also hopes to inspire civil society organizations to research and monitor the impact of local government policies on public health and well-being.
Publisher: Mekanda Adalet Derneği
Project Team: Bahar Bayhan, Sena Nur Gölcük
Project Advisors: Fatih Artvinli, İlker Kayı, Kumru Çılgın, Selma Karabey
Researcher / Writer:Ayça Yüksel
Editor: Bahar Bayhan
Final proofreading: Eylem Can
Translator: Duru Dumankaya
Graphic Design: Duygu Dağ
Design Implementation: Alp Şerif Besen
Photographs by: Emirkan Cörüt, Sena Nur Gölcük
Contributors: Ceren Yartan, Duygu Dağ, Enes Kablan, Hüseyincan Eryılmaz, Onur Temel, Tansu Toprak, Tuğba Uçar, Yağız Eren Abanus
Contact: Kemankeş Karamustafapaşa Mah. Halil Paşa Sok. Ömer Abed Han 2/416 34425 Beyoğlu / İstanbul +90 0545 358 9581 info@beyond.istanbul
