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.

The Healthy Cities initiative 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 and local governments have gained new attention and significant prominence in the context of the implementation of the SDGs. Healthy Cities is a strategic vehicle for health development and well-being in urban settings.

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.

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.