This paper aims at discussing the importance of the Healthy City Movement as a strategy to improve the quality of life of the population. From the movement's present context both in the Brazil and in the world, a pilot experiment carried out in 1996-1998, in the cities of Dionísio and São José do Goiabal, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, is presented and analyzed. Taking interdisciplinarity, intersectorality and participation as basic assumptions, the strategic planning methodology proposed by Carlos Matus was used to develop an action plan to face priority problems in the municipalities. The active participation of community groups was encouraged so that at the end of the process this methodology could be assimilated by and incorporated to the routine of municipal administrations. This paper shows some preliminary results and discusses the advantages and constraints of this process.
Healthy Municipality/City; Health Promotion; Quality of Life