WHO Global Forum on Urbanization and Health

Honourable Mayor of Kobe City: Tatsuo Yada

Honourable Ministers, Mayors

My fellow WHO Regional Director and Assistant Director General

Distinguished guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, I would like to welcome you all to the Global Forum on Urbanization and Health with the participation of over 50 mayors, national ministers and governors.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the government of Japan, and to the Kobe Group in particular, for their generous support and leadership. Thanks to their dedication and commitment, this Forum has been made possible.

The Forum presents a great opportunity for leaders from across the globe to share their experiences in addressing the problems of health in an urban health setting.

The numbers tell the story. Half of the people in the world now live in cities. Almost one billion of those people live in appalling conditions. And if things continue the way they are now, it is predicted that by 2050, 70% of the world's population will be living in an urban area.

Urban living has improved the lives of many people. It has provided them with a good income, a better standard of living and access to public services, including health facilities.

But unplanned, unregulated urbanization can lead to exactly the opposite – to unemployment, to poverty and to poorer health.

Poorly managed urbanization puts a strain on water supplies and sanitation systems, damages the environment and leaves populations vulnerable to man-made and natural disasters. We have seen many examples of that in this region. That includes my home city of Manila, which suffered catastrophic flooding last year.

So it is no surprise that rapid urbanization is now a global concern.

That is why the World Health Organization chose this year's World Health Day, in April, to highlight these issues. Over 1500 cities participated in the important event.

World Health Day was the start of a year-long campaign to draw attention to the impact that rapid urbanization is having on the health of hundreds of millions of people.

In the Western Pacific Region, Ministers of Health agreed during our recent annual meeting to expand the current Healthy Cities and Health Islands initiatives.

In South East Asia, Ministers of Health signed the Bangkok Declaration on Urbanization and Health in September.

And in the Americas, Ministers of Health held a special Ministerial Roundtable event to discuss urbanization and health in September.

I applaud these efforts. But the truth is that there is a limit to what we in the health sector can do.

The power to change things lies with the people who are responsible for education, for transport, for housing, for sanitation and for designing urban environments that encourage us to exercise more.

So I am delighted to see the many mayors and city leaders who have joined us at this important Forum.

I also welcome the representatives from the many alliances and networks here today—the Alliance for Healthy Cities, the Healthy Cities Network, the United Cities and Local Governments, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, National Association of County and City Health Officials, to name but a few.

Welcome to all of you. It is through you and with you that we will be able to tackle the impact of urbanization on health.

On Wednesday the Director-General of WHO and the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT will jointly launch a report called Hidden Cities: unmasking and overcoming health inequities in urban settings

This report provides information and tools that will help strengthen the response to urban health inequities. We hope that the report will be of use to everyone – but particularly to those of you working at community level. One of the keys to change is to revitalize our communities and mobilize local expertise and resources.

At the same time, national programmes — with dedicated national focal points — need to be developed to facilitate coordination among the various sectors that shape urban life.

I also believe that we need to see what others are doing – to share ideas and best practices. Forums such as this are excellent venues for all of us to learn from one another.

In conclusion, let me assure you that WHO will continue to work with you to implement these important initiatives. We will facilitate the sharing of experiences and best practices. We will help support national and regional networks. And we will work with you to make our cities healthier places to live, work and play.

We have an important job to do here. Let's roll up our sleeves and get on with it.

Thank you.