Policy Accelerator

Policy changes presents challenges—which is why the Partnership team has worked to establish a set of tools and resources to help cities bring their ideas into fruition.

Launched in September 2021, the Partnership for Healthy Cities Policy Accelerator supports cities in establishing the technical foundations and political strategies needed to create and implement local health policies that prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries, including navigating the complex social and political hurdles to adoption. It provides training and support that puts health leaders in the driver’s seat as they work on actual problems they are facing, making change much more likely. The Accelerator places best-in-class tools, methods and expertise at the fingertips of participants that they can leverage for future challenges.

For more information, contact cities4health@vitalstrategies.org.

Over the course of six months cities access intensive technical assistance on policy development and advocacy through curriculum-based engagement and collaborative learning and exchange. The Policy Accelerator engages and guides city government participants through the following steps in the policy process:

Problem Characterization	Understanding legal authority	Defining the policy solution
Using evidence to describe the scope, impacts, and root causes of public health issue Assessing available evidence to identify and address information gaps	Understanding city jurisdiction and application of different policy adoption pathways Navigating multi-level governance (national, sub-national, local) for effective policy advancement	Identifying policy solutions to address public health issues and their potential impact Considering implementation and enforcement plans within the policy development process

Politics and political engagement	Communications for the policy process	Action planning
Building public engagement and support for policy development and adoption Leveraging political strategies to frame and position key public health issues	Assessing influence and interests of external and internal stakeholders Using the media and communications to support policy acceptance and implementation	Considering and prioritizing policy implementation within the policy planning process Resource planning, budgeting, workforce development, monitoring and evaluation for policy development

For the purposes of this program:

• “Policy” is defined as a law, regulation, procedure, administrative action, incentive or mandatory practice of governments and other institutions.[1] Ideally, the policy proposed should aim to operate at-scale, meaning influencing practice for the whole of the affected population, or across a large area of the city or metropolitan region.
• Policy is distinct from programmatic or communications activities, which will not be supported unless necessary to advance a new policy.
• For certain policy goals (e.g., tobacco control and food policy), city legislative authority may be limited, so cities can work within the limits of their authority. For example:
  • The policy may entail establishing local enabling rules to support the implementation and/or enforcement of a national law or regulation;
  • A city government may also pursue specific legislative/mayoral policy initiatives to advance an existing national, regional or state-level policy.
  • NB: The above bullet points not exhaustive; we welcome proposals for policy goals that may be more closely aligned with other city planning objectives or mechanisms.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations:

• Proposals that center redressing health inequalities and achieving health equity will be favorably considered, as will proposals that reflect a continuity of previous Partnership-supported work.
• Equity must be considered when assessing policy enforcement and compliance to increase overall policy effectiveness and promote equitable outcomes for city inhabitants.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/policy/opaph/process/definition.html