SP2 Healthy cities for all
The future lies with cities. Socially, culturally, environmentally and politically, cities are becoming more important than ever before. Cities are centers of opportunities, and are often at the forefront of innovation to improve the health and well-being of all those who live in and interact with urban places.
The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs set ambitious targets for advancing sustainable development – which includes health, well-being and equity – by 2030. Cities play a central role in achieving the SDGs at the local level. Closest to the people, they create platforms for successful collaborative action on the social, cultural, political, economic and environmental determinants of health and well-being. Their understanding of the fundamental role of health and well-being in sustainable development is essential.
As the leading global network on sustainable urban development, ICLEI’s cross-cutting and intersectoral approach to promoting collaboration between cities in achieving a sustainable urban future is in line with this narrative. It is a crucial platform for bringing about change and achieving improved prosperity, well-being, and equitable and sustainable development in cities and regions. Our network strong and active leadership has shown that many sustainable development challenges are most effectively addressed at the local level, and it offers multiple examples of innovative ways to do so.
In the face of the recent developments in the international development community, the 2018 edition of the ICLEI World Congress presents an unpresented opportunity to learn from the work done on healthy cities globally, and attracts politicians and key decision-makers from within cities, as well as technical experts attention on how to achieve a better sustainable future through health and well-being policies.
Chair
Kinlay Dorjee
Member, ICLEI Global Executive Committee, and Mayor, Thimphu City Corporation, Bhutan
Panelists
Panel 1: Sustainable cities are Healthy cities
Sylvia Muzila
Mayor of Francistown, Botswana
Lee Yeon Hee
Director-General of Environmental Bureau of Gyeonggi Provincial Government, Gyeonggi, South Korea
Thomas Pesek
Senior Liaison Office for North America, FAO, Washington, USA
Nanda Jichkar
Mayor of Nagpur, India
Panel 2: Liveability and Urban well-being
Limin Hee
Director, Center for Liveable Cities at the Ministry of National Development, Singapore, Singapore
Dario Nardella
Mayor, City of Florence, Italy
Global Executive Committee Member, ICLEI
Victor Piedrahita
Sub-director, Metropolitan Area of Valle de Aburrá, Colombia
Johannes Van de Merwe
Councillor of the City of Cape Town, South Africa
Jean-Baptiste Gernet
Deputy Mayor of Strasbourg, France