On the occasion of the Austrian presidency of the EU Council, the ECF has analyzed the impact of the newest WHO plan promoting physical activity (GAPPA 2018-30). What does GAPPA offer a well-developed country like Austria in terms of guidance and suggestions to get more people more active?

“Austria gets full marks for promoting walking and cycling, especially in its larger cities. The leadership that has been shown by people like Maria Vassilakou, Deputy Mayor of Vienna, is inspiring,” according to Dr. Randy Rzewnicki, ECF health expert, at a recent presentation to the European Commission’s Platform for Action on Diet and Physical Activity in Luxembourg.

“She has changed the face of Vienna, making it a great place for people to walk and cycle. Not just for tourists, most importantly, it’s the people who live there who can now confidently and peacefully walk and cycle around many parts of their city. This was either not possible or not a safe and pleasant thing to do just a few years ago,” said Dr. Rzewnicki. 

Austria also gets full marks for valuing cycling. The country also shows ongoing leadership starting about 10 years back when they provided funding and other support for the development of the WHO Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT). They used the HEAT tool a few years ago to estimate the value of their Cycling Master Plan 2015-2025. “Robert Thaler deserves the credit for showing that leadership,” said Dr. Sylvia Titze, a professor at the University of Graz specializing in kinesiology. “He’s been promoting and supporting this for many years,” she said. Austria has also been a driving force behind the Pan-European Master Plan for Cycling, where Thaler has been instrumental.

The next HEAT webinar is Monday, 12 Nov. at 12 noon (CET); more info & registration here (click on hyperlink). ECF regularly provides webinars explaining the Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) in cooperation with W.H.O. and their experts who develop and maintain the tool. Future HEAT webinars will be announced here.

“There is one place where Austria can benefit from a global plan like the GAPPA,” said Dr. Rzewnicki. “That is on doing more to promote physical activity across sectors. It’s been noted in countries around the world, and certainly in Europe, that a well-funded sports programme is not enough to get people doing health enhancing physical activity like walking and cycling every day, everywhere they are. To get more people walking and cycling for transport needs involvement, planning and financial commitment from ministries like transport, education, and labour. And health, of course.”

The EU Commission is eager to help Member States that want to do this kind of work, according to Artur Furtado, Deputy Head of Unit at DG SANTE, the EU Commission’s Health arm.

In the case of Austria, which may want to do more work across sectors, Furtado said “Any example of best practice coordination is relevant. Member States (MS) can ask for support to achieve things that other MS have done. For example, Slovenia and Finland have good examples of coordination.”

The EU Commission’s Health arm is working on seeing that health is in all policies. Referring to their ongoing efforts at intersectoral work, “Health in All Policies, SANTE will continue to work with EAC & AGRI (The DGs for Education, Culture, Sports and Agriculture) on the Tartu call for Health,” said John F Ryan, Director at DG SANTE.

At the last Platform meeting, Ryan had cited SANTE’s work with DG MOVE of walking for transport. The ECF asked how they can help bring SANTE and MOVE to work together on cycling for transport as well. Ryan replied “SANTE will continue to raise the benefits of PA in its discussions with each of the other DGs that we work with” and “Cycling and walking for transport are important forms of physical activity.”

The ECF will continue to work together with and lobby the EU institutions to work for conditions to make cycling for transport continuously safer and simpler. The ECF will also keep working with countries like Austria so they can provide still more examples of good practice and leadership in walking and cycling for transport.

Notes:

The Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018_2030 (GAPPA) also called “More active People for a Healthier World” is available at this link.