Working in partnership to improve health and wellbeing in urban settings

Improving health is critical to meeting several SDG targets and 2030 is only a few years away. Cities and urban setting are where the battle for health will be won or lost. Between now and 2030 many cities will be built – and they need to learn lessons from existing cities in terms of what works and doesn’t work when it comes to providing an environment that is healthy and as a result maximizing economic productive.

This rich discussion will be one that looks at what governments, city authorities, the UN system, the private sector and civil society are doing to fulfil their responsibilities for developing and sustaining healthy cities and urban environments. And importantly, what more they need to do.

This event is jointly led by the Secretariat of the UN Non-communicable Diseases Task Force, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO), and UN-Habitat.

Most factors that influence health are outside the health sector. In cities and regions, planning and design play central roles in the prevention of disease and in fostering healthier environments.

For many years, WHO has supported local initiatives aimed at improving health in cities, established global partnerships and networks of cities to allow sharing of experiences, supported global and national advocacy efforts on urban health, and contributed to building the evidence base to enhance urban health outcomes. One of these efforts is the Healthy Cities initiative which was conceived with the goal of placing health high on the social and political agenda of cities by promoting health, equity and sustainable development through innovation and multisectoral change. Healthy Cities is a strategic vehicle for health development and well-being in urban settings and to achieve urban health. Healthy Cities and local governments have gained new attention and significant prominence in the context of the implementation of the SDGs.

Deliberate action in planning cities and territories can contribute directly or indirectly in improving health and wellbeing, for example implementing population-based evidence-based measures to improve air pollution, reduce tobacco and alcohol use, and improve access to a healthy diet and physical activity.

By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in an urban space. As many have yet to be built, there is an opportunity to encourage urban designers and policy makers to develop cities and towns that promote health, wellbeing and happiness and address risk factors– and as a result are more economically productive.

Together, UN-Habitat, WHO and other members of the UN NCD Task Force aim to support Member States position health at the center of urban development, through creating enabling environment for health and welling including effective systems and processes and maximizing the impact of existing tools.

The UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2020-2025 emphasizes: (i) the need for UN-Habitat to leverage partnerships with local and regional governments, and development partners; and (ii) that sustainable development means addressing basic human rights of the millions of marginalized urban dwellers living in poverty and subject to marginalization. The next UN-Habitat strategic plan is expected to have health as a strategic priority.

The WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work 2019-2025 (GPW13) includes urban health as a growing priority for the Organization to address the root causes of ill health and reducing health inequities through action on social, economic, environmental, commercial, and cultural determinants at the local and city levels. WHO recognizes that urban health relies on coordinated action across various sectors—beyond just health, to include planning, housing, transportation, water, sanitation, energy, and more. A strategic approach to address urban health in an integrated way are being further elaborated and supported through the key global WHO workstreams.

At the global level, WHO and UN-Habitat work together to develop resources that integrate health and wellbeing in city planning, tools that quantify the health and socioeconomic impact of planning and designing urban areas from a health perspective, capturing successful initiatives, and developing training material on urban planning and health. The Task Force has a dedicated workstream that drives forward action on urban health.

WHOs Eastern Mediterranean region (EMRO) and UN-Habitat’s Arab States Region have gone further by incorporating urban and green indicators in WHO’s Healthy Cities programme at the regional level to have an updated list of healthy cities domains and indicators. This will guide cities authorities to measure, plan for, and invest in change for a more healthy, sustainable urban future.

The meeting will consist of keynote addresses, panel discussions and plenary discussion. Panelists will consist of experts from government and city authorities, academia, the UN system, private sector and civil society. A small number of contributors are listed below, but space precludes including all of them.

The first panel will focus on action in the Eastern Mediterranean/Region for Arab States. The second panel will focus on regions in other parts of the world.

The full set of participants is as follows:

Keynote Addresses
- Dr Alian Li, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, Healthier Populations, WHO.
- Michael Mylnar, Deputy Executive-Director, UN-Habitat.

Panel 1
- Abdel Aziz Al-Darwish, President Rabat Council, Morocco.
- Mohammad Khashoggi, General Director, Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- Amaal Alyahiya, Head of Healthy Cities Department in MoH, Kuwait.
- Mazen Malkawi, RA Environmental Health and Climate Change, WHO Regional Centre for Environmental Health Action.

Panel 2
- Claudia Lopez, former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia.
- Nicholas You, Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, China.
- Kristie Daniel, Program Director, livable cities, Heathbridge Foundation of Canada.
- Atsani Ariobowo, Director, Child and Youth Health, FIA Foundation.

Reflections, ways forward, and closing remarks
- Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
- Graham Alabaster, Head of Geneva Office, Office of the Executive Director, UN Habitat.

Additional moderators
- Nagwa Lachine, Programme Officer, UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States.
- Samar El-Feky, Regional Adviser for Health Promotion and Social Determinants of Health, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office.