Walking For All Update Report 2021
25th February 2021In 2019, Sport NI and the Public Health Agency (PHA) formed a partnership with a view to creating a single coordinated led-walking programme within Northern Ireland. The programme is called Walking For All.
The Walking For All programme is ‘shovel-ready’. The attached report is a status report of preparatory work completed to date on the Walking For All scheme. The Greenbook Economic Appraisal concluded that ‘there is strong evidence to indicate a need for a flagship NI-wide led-walking programme with sufficient scale and scope to contribute to addressing a number of issues facing society, such as levels of physical inactivity and social isolation
This focus on walking is extremely timely. The value of the walking particularly to the population’s health and wellbeing has never been so apparent than over the COVID-19 lockdown period. The challenges emerging from lockdown are also an opportunity to encourage greater participation in walking, particularly for certain population groups such as in areas of deprivation.