Presentation

PACTE+ is a three-year Erasmus+ funded project, built on the ground of the Promoting Active Cities Throughout Europe (PACTE) project.

PACTE+ is linked to the priorities of the European Union’s Work Plan for Sport, namely investments in sport and physical activity, as well as the ambitions to better promote physical activity. The project aims to encourage cities to take a proactive approach to the promotion of physical activity, in sight of improving individual and collective well-being.

Building on the previous work done during PACTE, this new European project has three main objectives:

• Take stock of cities’ improvements and the overall context to improve the PACTE Matrix for change.
• Unlock cities’ potential to champion physical activity through 4 pilot intervention conducted with a tailored support.
• Measure the impact of the program implemented to strengthen advocacy for Active city policies in favour of physical activity.

Developed through PACTE, the Matrix for change is a multidimensional tool which addresses 3 key physical activity settings: Active Schools, Active Workplaces and Active Mobility, with an overall approach on Active cities governance. PACTE+ will assist 4 designated cities in the use of this Matrix.

Hence, PACTE+ pilot interventions will allow four cities to showcase the benefits to retire from the implementation of an Active city strategy. Identifying the need for the latter through those pilot interventions will highlight the interest of the Matrix for change for cities seeking out to promote an active lifestyle for their residents and visitors. Moreover, it will permit to integrate further methodological elements in the PACTE Matrix to better tackle raising concerns in urban policies, such as the environmental impact, the concept of smart cities but also the overall issues that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis.

To conduct PACTE+, the project’s consortium is composed of eleven partners, some of which were already involved in PACTE : Think tank Sport and Citizenship (coordinator), TAFISA, ECF, EFCS, Evaleo, ICSSPE, Munich Technical University, and the cities of Limerick (IRL), Graz (AT), Fredrikstad (NO), and Angers (FR). As a recognised consortium, the partners will be able to deliver a qualitative assessment to improve the Matrix for change, to measure the effect of the implemented programs within the pilot cities and at the end to strengthen the advocacy materials for Active city policies.

Over a period of 36 months, the PACTE+ project has established several tasks to achieve its objectives. The project’s period is divided into a three-phase implementation plan.

A Europe-wide representative survey to assess the Matrix for change tool effectiveness.

In a first phase, the partners of the project will conduct with cities, including PACTE+ partners cities, to evaluate the Matrix for change. This step will serve as a first overview of the tool and will allow to identify the elements to be improved.

A tailored support for the field interventions.

To be able to provide a tailored support for the implementation of the field interventions, case studies of the state of play of physical activity promotion policies and active cities initiatives will be produced in each of the four partners cities.

This second phase will be divided in a four-period action plan to increase the reach of the tailored support. Hence, each city has been attributed a specific topic of intervention among the following:

• Informing the cities about the importance of active cities governance.
• Involving all stakeholders to promote physical activities in the workplace.
• Better integrated physical activities at school.
• Enhance innovative mobility solution to better link physical activity and transport policies.

Each of those field interventions will welcome a workshop in which the participants will have the opportunity to exchange good practices and to discuss about the utility of the Matrix to develop their Active city plan of action. Indeed, one of the main goals of the PACTE+ project is to disseminate the value for cities to enhance physical activity through designed urban policies directed to governance, mobility, school, and the workplace.

An impact assessment to better promote active cities in Europe.

This third and last phase focuses on the effects and consequences of the field interventions and includes three main tasks for the partners to achieve.

Firstly, a measurement of the impact of each field intervention to showcase the benefits and the importance of Active city policies through concrete, measurables and identifiable results. This will lead to an impact study and report.

Secondly, the construction of a unique set of indicators, adjusted to the dimensions of the system and the themes addressed by the project, to increase the strength of the methodology.

Finally, the impact assessment and the strengthen methodology will help to produce advocacy materials needed to guarantee a better recognition of the benefits of Active cities policies.