Nederland Beweegt

Objectives

Nederland Beweegt is a long-term national prevention approach to make physical activity a natural, attractive part of everyday life in the Netherlands. It seeks achievable health gains, improved physical and mental wellbeing, reduced health inequalities and a social norm in which regular movement is commonplace, while retaining the longer-term ambition for 75% of people to meet the physical-activity guidelines.[1][2][3][4]

• Prioritise people who undertake little or no physical activity, including young people, people with lower educational or income levels, people with chronic conditions or disabilities, and older people, because they may gain most from becoming more active.[2][3]
• Promote a healthy, activity-friendly living environment that makes walking, cycling, outdoor play and exercise easy, safe and appealing.[2][5][6]
• Increase awareness among the public and professionals of the health benefits of physical activity, including the principle that any amount of movement can contribute to health.[5][7]
• Embed physical activity in policies for education, employment, healthcare, spatial planning, active mobility and leisure, rather than treating sport as the only route to increased activity.[5][7]
• Strengthen local prevention, social connection, vitality and participation by using physical activity to address loneliness and support a stronger social foundation.[8]
• Advance three action lines for 2022–2025: raise attention and awareness; generate more societal initiatives through the Beweegalliantie; and reinforce local and regional physical-activity approaches.[9]

Implementation

Implementation combines national agenda-setting and enabling conditions with locally led, cross-sector action. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport works with other government departments, municipalities, provinces, civil-society organisations, knowledge institutions, businesses and the Beweegalliantie to remove barriers and integrate movement into daily settings, while recognising that no single intervention will suit every population group.[1][10][4][11]

• Link delivery to the Healthy and Active Living Agreement, National Prevention Agreement, Integrated Care Agreement, Sport Agreement II, the Health and Prevention Agreement and the associated Specific Grant Scheme.[7][8]
• Improve physical and social environments through safe and accessible walking and cycling routes, green space, healthy schoolyards, movement-friendly public areas and planning for active living.[5][4][12]
• Support activity in schools, workplaces, healthcare and neighbourhoods, including active travel, workplace and school movement, local walking groups, outdoor play and suitable sports provision.[5][10]
• Mobilise the Beweegalliantie to connect organisations, share experience, identify participation barriers and stimulate initiatives across healthcare, education, workplaces and the living environment. The alliance had more than 100 participating organisations in June 2023.[4][13]
• Strengthen municipal delivery through local coalitions, sport and prevention coordinators, support from the Association of Sports and Municipalities and the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, and exchange of learning between municipalities.[8][12][11]
• Develop and scale interventions through the Growth Programme, led with ZonMw and the Beweegalliantie, particularly for young people and people with fewer opportunities; use subsidy calls to engage welfare, healthcare and social-domain organisations.[13]
• Target communication through the Fit op jouw manier campaign and use campaign evaluation findings to improve subsequent activity-promotion communications.[6]
• Develop knowledge about health effects, sedentary behaviour, and the motivations, competencies and barriers affecting groups with lower activity levels; convene partners through initiatives such as the Beweegcongres.[14][15]

Governance divides responsibilities between the ministry and the Physical Activity Alliance. The ministry links action lines to relevant programmes, addresses barriers identified by the alliance and monitors implementation and effects; the alliance convenes stakeholders, supports locally developed solutions, highlights community initiatives and steers its own efforts towards results.[11]Monitoring is intended to support accountability, learning, agenda-setting and adjustment of implementation.[16][17]

• Track behaviour annually through the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment’s Lifestyle Monitor and explore more objective measurement through activity-monitor pilots.[14][15]
• Use Core Indicators for Sport and Physical Activity, including compliance with activity guidelines, sedentary behaviour and the movement-friendliness of the environment, disaggregated where relevant by age, target group and activity type.[17]
• Produce periodic progress reports through the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and Knowledge Centre Sport & Movement, drawing on information from the ministry, Beweegalliantie and relevant partners and monitoring systems.[18]
• Assess local and regional approaches, including their effects for specific target groups, and share transferable experience through municipal and social-sector networks.[12][11]
• Allocate 10 million euros annually during the current government period to promote physical activity, including 3 million euros annually through the Specific Grant Scheme for local Sport Agreement implementation and coalitions.[11]
• Provide approximately 3 million euros annually to the Beweegalliantie, 800,000 euros annually for the Growth Programme through ZonMw, 500,000 euros annually for a public campaign, and 500,000 euros for knowledge development, research and monitoring.[16]

Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring combines population outcomes, implementation processes and learning across the action plan. It is intended to show changes in physical-activity behaviour, assess how interventions contribute to those changes, support accountability for political and administrative commitments, and enable strategies to be adjusted where evidence warrants this.[16][17]

• Use the 2017 physical activity guidelines issued by the Health Council of the Netherlands as the principal health reference. Evidence underpinning the approach indicates that any increase in movement benefits health, with the greatest gains expected when inactive people begin to be active.[2][5]
• Track physical activity annually through the Lifestyle Monitor of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). In 2022, fewer than half of people aged four years and over met the guidelines, while people aged nine years and over sat for an average of nine hours daily, with marked differences between population groups.[2][14]
• Measure core outcomes through the existing Core Indicators for Sport and Physical Activity, including compliance with physical-activity guidelines, sedentary behaviour and the activity-friendliness of the physical environment. Disaggregate indicators, where relevant, by age, target group and activity type.[17]
• Develop more objective measurement methods through RIVM pilot projects using activity monitors, with future methods informed by pilot findings.[14][15]
• Commission short-term research on public awareness and perceptions of physical activity’s health effects, including among groups with lower activity levels. Develop knowledge on sedentary behaviour, its health effects and approaches that may help people sit less, while recognising remaining evidence gaps.[14][15]
• Evaluate public communication campaigns for effects on healthy-lifestyle awareness and intentions to change behaviour, and use findings to improve subsequent campaign targeting.[6]
• Assess local and regional approaches, including their effects on target groups’ physical-activity behaviour, and share learning between municipalities through the Association of Sports and Municipalities, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities and other municipal networks.[12][11]
• Produce periodic progress reports through RIVM and Knowledge Centre Sport & Movement, drawing on information requested from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Beweegalliantie and relevant partners. Reports are expected to combine core-indicator data with contextual evidence on alliance activity, ministerial action, cross-policy integration, local delivery and relevant existing monitoring systems.[18]
• Link monitoring, where applicable, with the Health and Prevention Agreement and Specific Grant Scheme arrangements, Sportakkoord II, the National Prevention Agreement and the national mental-health approach “Van ons allemaal”.[18]
• Assign the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport responsibility for monitoring implementation and effects across the action lines, while the Physical Activity Alliance monitors its own efforts and steers towards results.[11]

No formal sanctions are specified. While the framework includes core indicators and periodic reporting, the available material does not set out numerical targets, a fixed reporting timetable, or a detailed evaluation design for every Beweegalliantie activity and related programme.[4][13][12][11]

Costing & Financing

Coalition Agreement prevention resources total 60 million euros, including 10 million euros annually during the current government period to promote physical activity. Of this annual physical-activity allocation, 3 million euros is channelled through the broad Specific Grant Scheme to strengthen Sport Agreement implementation, widen local coalitions and embed sport and physical activity locally.[11]

• Allocate approximately 3 million euros per year through a grant to the Beweegalliantie.[16]
• Reserve approximately 800,000 euros per year for the Growth Programme, distributed through ZonMw.[16]
• Reserve 500,000 euros per year to establish and deliver a public campaign.[16]
• Make 500,000 euros available for knowledge development, research on physical activity and sedentary behaviour, and monitoring of the plan.[16]
• Use the remaining unspecified resources for meetings that promote physical activity and for cooperation with societal organisations, other government departments and municipalities, potentially through grants or co-financing.[16]

Additional public support is identified for initiatives such as Healthy Schoolyards, and the Growth Programme includes subsidy calls aimed at organisations in welfare, healthcare and the social domain; however, no individual funding amounts are provided for these activities.[4][13]No funding gap, expenditure forecast, resource requirement, economic model or other economic assumption is specified in the available material.[1][11]