outline
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published new guidance for decision-makers. A strategic approach to urban healthIt provides practical strategies for advancing a new phase of urban health action. This guide responds to the growing need for integrated approaches to address health issues while promoting overall well-being in urban contexts. It represents the first comprehensive framework to support governments in strategically planning for urban health and ensure that evidence can effectively inform policy and practice.
This guide was released on World Cities Day. More than 4.4 billion people, or more than half of the world’s population, currently live in urban environments, and this figure is expected to reach nearly 70% by 2050. Cities are where health, inequality, environment and economic factors intersect, creating both significant challenges and opportunities for development. However, the greatest health burden is often concentrated in slums and informal settlements. Here, residents experience unsafe housing, poor sanitation, food insecurity, and increased exposure to flooding and heat waves. Approximately 1.1 billion people currently live in these environments, and that number is expected to triple by 2050.WHO)
Purpose and scope of the guide
This guide has five objectives:
- Provides conceptual clarity and defines urban health and its scope.
- To make a compelling case for strategic action
- It provides broad, practical recommendations for those seeking a strategic approach.
- We propose a roadmap for implementing this guidance.
- Illustrate strategic actions through concrete examples.
Although this guide is aimed at public sector policy makers and practitioners at national and local scales, its insights are relevant to all urban health stakeholders. Building on previous WHO work, it describes the political and policy context for urban health, explicitly emphasizes complexity science, emphasizes enabling frameworks for sectoral action, and proposes an integrated urban health strategy.
A strategic approach to urban health: suggestion
This guide sets out three important ways governments can act more strategically for city health.
1) Recognize and manage complexity
- Educate urban health practitioners and policy makers at all levels to understand and manage the impact of complexity on urban health.
- Expand monitoring and evaluation processes to capture unexpected consequences of urban health policies and practices.
- Use scenario-based modeling to predict intended and unintended consequences.
- Design decision-making and implementation processes to operate more effectively in the face of complexity.
- Adopt adaptive governance and build adaptation to interventions, policies and strategies.
2) Utilize entry points
- Build and maintain awareness of the political, policy and public opinion environment at city, national and global scales.
- Document and track region-wide initiatives related to urban health at the project, program and policy scale.
- Prepare for the emergence of entry points by scoping and planning city health strategies in anticipation of implementation opportunities.
- Let your entry point be a stepping stone to broader action.
3) Strengthening implementation means
rule:
- Establish government-wide political authority for urban health.
- Clearly define city health responsibilities and create accountability.
- Establish or strengthen coordination mechanisms.
financing
- Expand assessment of the costs and benefits of urban health activities.
- Reconfigure financing mechanisms to support strategic urban health policies and implementation.
- Increase the reach, resilience and sustainability of city health finance.
Human, institutional, and systematic capabilities
- Perform iterative assessments of capacity and capacity requirements.
- Integrate capacity development as a standard component of urban health practice.
- Account for capacity assets, shortages, and needs when designing urban health policies and practices.
Data creation and management
- Strengthen urban health data systems by expanding data scope, types, and sources.
- Adopt best practices for city health data management.
- Adopt a set of high-value city health indicators.
Evidence-based decision support
- Institutionalize evidence-based policies and practices for urban health.
- We help you apply interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary insights to decision-making.
- Increase local capacity and external links for evidence-based decision-making.
- Implement strong monitoring and evaluation systems.
Related: Urban Health Promotion Center Construction and Operation Guidelines 2074
innovation
- Nurturing an innovation ecosystem for urban health.
- Create a dedicated space for urban health experiments.
- Develop processes to identify and scale promising new solutions.
partnership
- Where appropriate, adopt partnership models to meet city health needs.
- Create an environment that encourages collaboration.
- Provides resources to support effective urban health partnerships.
participation
- Institutionalize participation as a core value and component of public sector activities for urban health.
- Improving communication about city health.
- Encourage non-state actors to participate in urban health.
Develop a comprehensive strategy: The pinnacle of a strategic approach is a comprehensive strategy that elevates urban health as a societal goal and provides the necessary powers, mechanisms and resources to achieve and sustain it.
