What no one tells you about Healthy Cities.

Being able to live in a health-supportive environment, while achieving a good quality of life and having access to basic sanitation and hygiene with an endless supply of access to health care should be a basic human right for all. However, it is not.

The health determinants discussed above, if introduced and enforced within communities, can bridge a number of health disparity gaps found in a lot of societies. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is in agreement with the above point. They have discovered that a causal relationship between healthy individuals and their day to day environment exists.

This discovery lead them to determine that governments need to embrace a series of collaborative actions that address the health challenges of urbanization. Thus the initiative known as ‘Healthy Cities’ was drafted and globally implemented in 1986 at a global health conference in Ottawa, Canada.  

WHO recognizes the importance of having an infrastructure that supports people holistically within the community, especially since urbanization has been increasing at an alarming rate.

The ‘Healthy City’ concept explores the idea that the vision of a city should promote life, good health, and the well-being of its citizens. It should also guide the development of policies and
programs of city governments, but more importantly, it should inspire citizens to lead
healthy lifestyles and improve their environment. 

 Healthy City Series 

References

de Leeuw, E., 2001. Global And Local (Glocal) Health: The WHO Healthy Cities Programme. [online] Glocalhealthconsultants.com. Available at: <https://glocalhealthconsultants.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/globalAndLocalHealth.pdf> [Accessed 2 August 2020].

Euro.who.int. 2003. Healthy Cities Around The World. An Overview Of The Healthy Cities Movement In The Six WHO Regions. [online] Available at: <https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/101526/healthycityworld.pdf> [Accessed 2 August 2020].

Euro.who.int. 2020. Healthy Cities Vision. [online] Available at: <https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/environment-and-health/urban-health/who-european-healthy-cities-network/healthy-cities-vision> [Accessed 2 August 2020].