NEW DELHI: More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, a proportion expected to reach 68% by 2050, the WHO said on Tuesday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that while cities can create powerful opportunities for better health, climate action and social development, rapid urbanisation is also exposing billions of people to inadequate housing and transport, poor sanitation, air pollution, extreme heat and environments that contribute to non-communicable diseases and injuries.
As the 2030 deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals approaches, strengthening the capacities of cities to make real change for communities is more important than ever, it stressed.
“Creating healthier cities requires more than technical solutions. It requires people and institutions that can work across sectors, understand where capacity is strongest and where gaps remain, and turn that knowledge into coordinated action,” said Dr Nathalie Roebbel, WHO Technical Lead, Urban Health.
With COP31 in Türkiye and the next World Urban Forum in Mexico City on the horizon, attention is turning to how global commitments can translate into meaningful action at the local level.
In response, for the second year in a row, the WHO Academy and WHO Urban Health Unit held a four-week training on the Urban Health Capacity Assessment and Response – Resource Kit, bringing together 73 participants (selected from more than 120 applications) from 27 countries across all six WHO regions.
Participants included representatives of city health departments, national ministries, civil society organisations, academia and WHO country offices.
The training helped participants translate the resource kit from guidance into practical action.
The participants applied the kit to their own urban health priorities and examined published examples from cities including Greater Accra, Enugu State, Gwangju Dong-gu, Kwekwe, Lira, London, Suva and Utrecht.
Each participant left with a draft plan to initiate an assessment in their own context, with written commitments outlined for the entire cohort to monitor. The training reflects the fact that health in cities is shaped far beyond the health sector.
“This training is helping to build a global community of practitioners equipped to place health and equity at the heart of urban development,” Dr Roebbel said.
Transport, housing, food systems, employment, environmental conditions, infrastructure, safety and urban planning all influence people’s opportunities to live healthy lives.
