About

The Initiative on Urban Governance for Health and Well-being (UGHW) works directly with cities, mayors, local and national governments, urban community representatives, civil society organizations and international academic partners in six cities: Khulna (Bangladesh), Bogota (Colombia), Douala (Cameroon), Mexico City (Mexico), Pasig City, Metro Manila (Philippines) and Tunis (Tunisia).

The Initiative is also strengthening Regional Healthy Cities Networks and advocacy efforts to place health high on the political agenda of mayors. 

During Phase 1 (2020–2024), following a rapid situation analysis, cities identified a range of priority issues of concern. These included: 1) informal settlements; 2) basic public services; and 3) social cohesion in cities. Mayors of the six cities have committed to tackling these priorities by enhancing participatory urban governance for health and well-being, as well as by promoting dialogues and social innovations at local levels.

To achieve its goal, the Initiative focused on five strategic actions for transforming governance:

1. Leadership: Re-orienting institutions of governance through the leadership of mayors to increase community participation and effectiveness and securing political commitment such as through the WHO Healthy Cities networks.
2. Institutionalization: Integrating mechanisms at an institutional level to promote policies and interventions with a participatory process from multiple sectors, for example new committees, participatory budgets, platforms, action plans, memoranda of understanding, and issuing of decrees.
3. Capacity building: Enhancing technical competence to address social determinants of health and equity in cities through a Health in All Policies approach. WHO regional and country offices have conducted capacity-building workshops on health promotion, determinants of health, and healthy equity, with over 600 participants benefitting from the trainings. The WHO ‘Urbanlead’ programme further supports this work by strengthening city leadership teams to drive governance innovations that promote health equity and well-being. 
4. Research:  Generating new evidence on urban governance for health and well-being at a local level, by developing tools to map governance mechanisms and monitor progress, documenting the experiences of cities through cases studies, and establishing regional labs for evidence generation, documentation and knowledge exchange.  
5. Advocacy: Advocating for participatory urban governance for health and well-being and sharing experiences, good practice, and challenges through global, regional and national city and mayors networks.

In Phase 2 (2025–2028), these actions will contribute to the following three outcomes:

1. Adoption and implementation of governance or conceptual frameworks for health and well-being (e.g. Healthy Cities, Health in All Policies).
2. Development and implementation of institutional mechanisms and policy tools for multisectoral action and community engagement, leading to increased actions and investments in health and well-being.
3. Strengthened human capabilities for urban governance for health and well-being.