The Healthy Municipalities, Cities and Communities Movement (HMCC) of the Americas is a regional platform of local governments made up of cities, municipalities, cantons, communes, and communities.

It is led by mayors and mayors' offices and is constituted as an integral and integrating network in which the different health initiatives that are implemented synergistically at the local level have a place. This platform offers a great opportunity to build strategic alliances and partnerships with other actors engaged in health and wellness.

A Healthy Municipality is committed to improving health, well-being, and equity through the implementation of healthy, intersectoral and participatory public policies. Each healthy municipality should be based on the values of the universal right to health, social justice, gender equality, solidarity, inclusion, and sustainable development.

VII Encuentro de Alcaldes y Alcaldesas por Municipios Saludables de la Región de las Américas / 24-25 de octubre de 2024. Cusco, Perú

Cartel del VII Encuentro de Alcaldes y Alcaldesas

Highlighted

Women Mayors for Healthy Municipalities of the Americas.

Women mayors from the Americas region reflect on the importance of making health central to the agenda of local governments. The interviews were conducted during the VI Meeting of Mayors for Healthy Municipalities, organized by PAHO and held in Huechuraba, Chile, on November 2 and 3, 2023.

Local governance for health and well-being: intersectoriality, participation and equity.

Governance for health and wellbeing includes a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to generate collective solutions that improve health and wellbeing through co-creation practices, social change and institutional commitment. Several mayors from the region reflected on these issues during the VI Meeting of Mayors for Healthy Municipalities, organized by PAHO and held in Huechuraba, Chile, on November 2 and 3, 2023.

Regional Meeting of Mayors for Healthy Municipalities of the Americas (Chile, 2023)

The Movement of Healthy Municipalities, Cities, and Communities (MCCS) of the Americas held its 6th annual Meeting of Mayors in Chile on November 2 and 3, 2023. The event brought together over 150 participants from 18 countries, including mayors, representatives of healthy municipality networks, and health ministries from the region. During the meeting, the Regional Criteria for Healthy Municipalities, Cities, and Communities of the Americas were launched, and the Huechuraba Declaration was promulgated, reaffirming the key role of local governments.

To be part of a regional platform of municipalities and cities that are leaders in health
To foster cooperation between municipalities committed to a common regional vision to promote the health and well-being of their populations
Exchange experiences in local governance for health, well-being and equity
Make visible the health policies successfully implemented in their territories
Participate in annual regional meetings of the Movement and other forums of mayors
To be able to count on the technical support of PAHO/WHO and make local experiences more visible
Build strategic alliances with other relevant international actors for the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Strengthen institutionally in the design, implementation and evaluation of policies with impact on health and well-being
To have access to publications, courses, and events of interest to municipalities and health in topics like local governance, health promotion, and health determinants
Join a shared "roadmap" for local action in health, guided by the HMCC Regional Criteria.

Local governments committed to health and well-being can join the Movement. To become a member, the highest local political authority must send a letter of membership to the Movement's Technical Secretariat, expressing commitment to health and well-being and designating a technical focal point.

The membership letter should be sent by e-mail to the following email: mccsamericas@paho.org.

The letter of adherence can be found in this link:

Letter of Adhesion to the Healthy Municipalities, Cities and Communities Movement of the Americas1.03 MB

COMITÉ EJECUTIVO

PRESIDENCIA: Paipa (Colombia).
VICEPRESIDENCIA PRIMERA: Minatitlán (México).
VICEPRESIDENCIA SEGUNDA: Sancti Spíritus (Cuba).
VICEPRESIDENCIA TERCERA: Tabarre (Haití).

MUNICIPIOS

	ARGENTINA:	Gualeguaychú, Ybarlucea, Sastre y Ortiz, Cafferata, Tostado, San Javier, Ceres, Coronel Pringles.
	BOLIVIA:	Mizque, San Lorenzo, El Puente, Toledo, El Carmen Rivero Torrez, Colpa Bélgica, Urubichá, Puerto Gonzalo Moreno, Boyuibe, Teoponte, Laja, Reyes, Coroico, Capinota, El Porvenir, Santa Ana de Yacuma, San Ramón, Portachuelo, Monteagudo, Villa Tunari, Caripuyo, Mairana, Pocona, Morochata.
	BRASIL:	Jacareí.
	CHILE:	Constitución, La Granja, Renca, Cauquenes, Arica, Huechuraba.
	COLOMBIA:	Encino, Monterrey, Nuevo Colón, Paipa, Santander de Quilichao, Enciso, Mogotes, Cerrito, Concepción, Charalá, Cajicá, Simacota, Santa Bárbara, San Joaquín, Palestina, La Plata, La Palma, Garzón, Yaguará, Tarqui, Suaza, Sogamoso.
	COSTA RICA:	Coto Brus.
	CUBA:	Cienfuegos, Sancti Spíritus.
	ECUADOR:	Alausí, Loreto, Quito, Cuenca, Samborondón.
	GUATEMALA:	Camotán.
	HAITÍ:	Tabarre.
	HONDURAS:	Trinidad, La Labor.
	MÉXICO:	Acatzingo, El Llano, La Magdalena Contreras (Ciudad de México), Milpa Alta (Ciudad de México), Minatitlán, Nuevo Parangaricutiro, Querétaro, Tláhuac (Ciudad de México), Uruapan, Iztacalco, Miguel Hidalgo, Gustavo A. Madero.
	PERÚ:	Cortegana, San Sebastián, Santiago de Cao, Pacanga, Ascope, Guadalupe, Yuyapichis, Pacasmayo, Huaso, San Miguel de Cauri, Sayapullo, Jose Luis Bustamante y Rivero, Choras, Cachicadán, Curgos, Pillco Marca, Chao, Jequetepeque, La Esperanza, Paranday, Urpay, Longotea, Julcán, Moche, Hermilio Valdizán, Sitabamba, Daniel Alomía Robles, Quisqui, Pueblo Nuevo, Castillo Grande, El Arenal, Santiago de Chuco, Marcavelicam, Salaverry, La Morada.
	URUGUAY:	Municipio A (Montevideo), Aguas Corrientes.

REDES NACIONALES Y SUBNACIONALES

	ARGENTINA:	Programa Nacional de Ciudades, Municipios y Comunidades Saludables (324 municipios).
	BRASIL:	Red de Municipios Potencialmente Saludables (40 municipios) y Red Pernambucana de Municipios Saludables (23 municipios).
	CHILE:	Red Chilena de Municipios y Comunidades Saludables (345 municipios).
	CUBA:	Red Cubana de Municipios, Ciudades y Comunidades por la Salud (10 municipios).
	HONDURAS:	Red Hondureña de Comunidades, Municipios y Mancomunidades Promotoras de la Salud (42 municipios)
	MÉXICO	Red de Alcaldías Promotoras de la Salud de la Ciudad de México.
	URUGUAY:	Red de Municipios y Comunidades Saludables de Uruguay (15 organizaciones)

CARTAS DE INTENCIÓN DE ADHESIÓN:

	COLOMBIA:	Red y Movimiento Nacional de Ciudades y Comunidades Saludables (167 municipios).
	MÉXICO:	Red Mexicana de Municipios por la Salud (2025 municipios).

TOTAL: 3.055 municipios

Throughout the history of the Movement’s 30+ years, numerous meetings have held. Regular meetings of mayors and of the HMCC have been held since 2017 including:

Meeting Acapulco, Mexico, 2017
Meeting Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, 2018
Meeting Paipa, Colombia, 2019
Meeting (virtual), 2021
Meeting Panama City, Panama, Panama, 2022
- During the V Meeting, mayors from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, and Uruguay approved the Declaration of Panama.
- At this meeting, the Statutes were adopted, and the Movement's Executive Committee was formed, which will contribute to a greater sustainability.
- The regional criteria of HMCC were also adopted. The criteria consists of guidelines to design, implement and monitor policies towards the construction of healthy municipalities through the actions and indicators selected for each one of them.

▼ Regional criteria

The criteria proposal was developed in response to the need expressed by mayors at the III Meeting regarding a common criteria to move forward together in the region and to strengthen the HMCC. They have been built collectively through a consultative process involving both, institutional actors (mainly from local governments and Ministries of Health) and academics. The proposal takes into account the criteria of healthy municipalities already existing in the Region (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic as well as other WHO regions). The document has been enriched by the discussions held in the various meetings. A total of four consultations were held during 2021 with participants from 16 countries (15 from the region and Spain) and more than 30 mayors. The elaboration process also included a series of discussions with municipal and national teams from countries in the Region involved in the implementation of healthy municipalities and frequent technical exchanges have been held with the WHO group in charge of proposing global criteria. Discussions were also held at the IV Meeting of Mayors of Healthy Municipalities of the Americas (December 2021) where a preliminary version of this document was presented, and the inputs collected led to the preparation of this version of the adopted regional criteria.