The urban leadership (“urbanlead”) programme

WHO initiative on urban governance for health and well-being

WHO SEARO / Florian Lang
WHO Initiative on Urban Governance for Health and Well-being

The urbanlead programme is designed for teams of leaders within a city (representative of municipalities, academic partners, and civil society groups) to share experiences, identify governance issues and concerns, develop governance innovations, apply principles of quality improvement to current initiatives using a COVID-19 lens and quality improvement tools for analysis of problems. The programme underscores the important role of governance in achieving better health outcomes and promoting equity and well-being. The programme is composed of four modules.

Modules

Module 1. Situation analysis for health inequity, the role of governance in health outcomes, leadership skills, COVID-19, prioritization of interventions, and project planning

Module 2. Review of progress, reflection on changes in the external environment, and redirection and consolidation of work with partners through participatory methods

Module 3. Preparation of project reports and presentation of results to key stakeholders

Module 4. Planning for sustainable infrastructure and financing

Principles of urbanlead

City-to-city learning: City champions engage with their counterparts in other cities in analysing problems, linking problems to solutions, and discussing innovative approaches and strategies.

Learning by doing: Participants use self-directed learning to apply their new knowledge and skills to existing situations in their jobs.

Quality improvement: Applying standard quality improvement tools, teams will build on and strengthen the governance aspects of an existing public health intervention.

Teams of leaders: Three to five champions in various disciplines will work together to develop and implement a strategic quality improvement project with high impact.

Projects with measurable outcomes: The projects will involve solutions and new ways of addressing problems and will ensure that the interventions are practical, feasible and have measurable outcomes.

Expected outcomes of urbanlead

Teams of city leaders and champions have created innovative projects that demonstrate the impact of governance on health inequity.

Networks of leaders and champions are able to share experiences, learn from each other and support institutionalization and mainstreaming of good urban governance.

An opportunity for academics in public health to support the documentation and publication of results in peer-reviewed journals.