Urban Governance for Health and Well-Being

It has been estimated that, by 2050, more than two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities (5). It is known, however, that intensive urban growth increases inequity and social exclusion, which are associated with increased social, environmental, economic and health risks (6). Public policies to address social determinants are therefore essential for urban health (7, 8). Urban governance determines how effectively urban inequities and risks are addressed. Bad urban governance may harm societies, as the public policies usually fail to address social and environmental determinants (9, 10), while good urban governance promotes policies to improve health and well-being in the population (11). Cities are complex systems, however, and the same public policies may have different effects in different populations, because, beyond public policies, urban health outcomes also depend on the interactions between governance, stakeholders and the population, requiring participatory governance and consensus in policy-making (12, 13). Each context, indicator of performance and implementation strategy is also different. As the rapid global trend to urbanization continues, participatory urban governance has been a topic of increasing research and interventions to improve health outcomes. Some studies have been conducted to identify and evaluate indicators of participatory urban governance (13–16), and others have analysed the results of policies for addressing health inequity (17–21). Few studies, however, have examined participatory urban governance, public policies and health outcomes together (22).

source :

https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/372160/9789240073036-eng.pdf?sequence=2