Let's improve our cities to live longer and better: World Health Day 2010
March 2010

The institution of the World Health Day by the World Health Organization is an opportunity to draw worldwide attention to a subject of major importance to global health each year. 

World Health Day 2010 will focus on urbanization and health. With the campaign "1000 cities - 1000 lives", events will be organized worldwide calling on cities to open up streets for health activities. The World Health Day, is celebrated on 7 April each year.

Why urbanization is a challenge for public health and why it is necessary that everybody should help for improving our cities?

The World Health Organization draws our attention and gives us very important information that we cannot afford to ignore.

Virtually all population growth over the next 30 years will be in urban areas. The rapid increase of people living in cities will be among the most important global health issues of the 21st century.

Over half the world’s population now live in cities. By 2030, six out of every 10 people will be city dwellers, rising to seven out of every 10 people by 2050. In many cases, especially in the
developing world, the speed of urbanization has outpaced the ability of governments to build essential infrastructure.

Unplanned urbanization can intensify an existing humanitarian crisis and has consequences for the health security and safety of all citizens in cities.

The urban poor suffer disproportionately from a wide range of diseases and other health problems. Health data is usually aggregated to provide an average of all urban residents - blurring differences between the rich and the poor. It thus masks the health conditions of the urban poor. More than one billion people – one third of the urban population – live in urban slums.

World Bank estimates that by 2035, cities will become the predominant sites of poverty. Health problems of the urban poor include an increased risk for violence, chronic disease, and for some communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

The major drivers of health in urban settings are beyond the health sector. Urbanization is not inherently positive or negative. Underlying drivers – also referred to as social determinants – converge in urban settings which strongly influence health status and other outcomes.

These determinants include physical infrastructure, access to social and health services, local governance, and the distribution of income and educational opportunities.

Communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, mental disorders, and deaths due to violence and road traffic injuries are all driven by these underlying social determinants.

Actions and solutions exist to tackle the root causes of urban health challenges. Urban planning can promote healthy behaviors and safety through investment in active transport, designing areas to promote physical activity and passing regulatory controls on tobacco and food safety.

Improving urban living conditions in the areas of housing, water and sanitation will go a long way to mitigating health risks.

Building inclusive cities that are accessible and age-friendly will benefit all urban residents. Such actions do not necessarily require additional funding, but commitment to redirect resources to priority interventions, thereby achieving greater efficiency.

Build partnerships with multiple sectors of society to make cities healthier. Health is a human right for all citizens. It is the role and responsibility of individuals, civil society, and governments to uphold this principle.

Platforms where municipalities, civil society and individuals come together must be encouraged to protect the right to health of current and future generations of urban dwellers.

By bringing multiple sectors of society together to actively engage in developing policies, more sustainable health outcomes will be achieved.

Bibliography - Sources

1. World Health Day
2. World Health Organization
3. Environmental Protection Agency