Case studies: cities and urban health

Over 55% of the world’s population live in urban areas and this is set to rise to 68% by 2050. This means that city authorities play a key role in protecting their citizens’ health.

Cities’ responses to health challenges must take account of multiple threats: rising levels of inequality, noncommunicable disease, communicable disease such as COVID-19, persistently high road injury rates and the impact of climate change. They also have to be multisectoral – ensuring policies on urban housing, employment, food and transport etc work together to have a positive impact.

Cities are reacting rapidly and innovatively to public health threats, building on existing city networks and partnerships with communities to best respond to the needs of their populations, sharing their experiences and learning from others. Many of these initiatives are building resilience and will be important in shaping future policy on urban health.

The health sector in cities lies at the heart of this, and has the potential to both influence and benefit from multisectoral policies that work together improve health and well-being. WHO enables this work in cities in many ways, providing technical guidance on how policies can benefit health; monitoring key health-related indicators such as air pollution and access to good sanitation; developing tools to help local decision-makers quantify the impact of urban health risks or estimate economic savings from investing in health promoting urban policies; and advocating for urban policies that promote health, prevent disease and foster inter-city collaboration.

As the world looks to mitigate the impact of climate change and rebuild and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, cities can take the lead in creating a new city standard – one that invests and creates policy to protect and promote population health, address inequalities and combat environmental degradation. WHO’s strengthened focus on urban health – and its practical support for those working to improve health in cities – is helping to make this goal a reality.