Planning for Clean, Green and Healthy Cities (Open)

This event will identify urban policies that can promote healthier cities with clean air, water and streets and in that way reduce heart and respiratory diseases and cancers. It will also consider the ways in which planning can include health in implementing the New Urban Agenda, providing examples of good practice, and propose a way forward for integrating health protection and promotion into the IGUTP.
Planners today have a central role in the prevention of the diseases of the 21st century, including obesity, heart disease, strokes and diabetes, as urban policies define the air we breathe, the buildings we use, the modes of transport available as well as access to healthy foods and public space for physical activity, leisure and social interaction. All of these factors are important determinants of diseases, and guidance for planners that informs and enables them to consider health in urban planning is one main mechanism to ensure that the New Urban Agenda delivers healthier cities.  Evidence on health benefits from urban policies drawn from WHO science-based reviews and guidelines (e.g. on housing, household energy, noise, air quality, sanitation) will be linked to the planning and related guidelines, facilitating the identification of synergies across urban and health policies and the achievement of objectives of different sectors operating in the urban environment.  The updated guidelines will advocate for health being a central goal of urban planning policy and practice, highlighting the role of planners in tackling the social, economic and environmental determinants of health.