Unravelling the complexity of organizing local healthy weight approaches: the role of learning communities

Abstract

Many Dutch municipalities aim to make healthy living easier through facilities (such as cycling paths), activities (such as general practitioner consultations or sport activities), and policies (such as regulations about healthy snacks). However, this remains challenging in practice. From 2021 to 2025, five municipalities in Gelderland-Zuid worked on their own healthy living approaches. Together with professionals and citizens, we explored how to strengthen these approaches. Key themes included empowering stakeholders (e.g., sufficient time), citizen participation (e.g., personalization), and strategic alignment (e.g., structural integration). We applied these insights through learning communities that brought together stakeholders from policy, practice, healthcare, and the community. For successful learning communities, group dynamics (e.g., an open atmosphere), learning through exchange (e.g., reflection), and implementation conditions (e.g., a sense of responsibility) proved essential. The dissertation concludes that learning communities provide a promising contribution to create more effective healthy living approaches.