Urban health as a unifying framework for sustainable development in Latin American Cities

The ways in which cities are built, organized and governed have important implications for human health, well-being, and environmental sustainability. Correspondingly, integrating health into urban planning, investments, and policy is vital to support the implementation and achievement of the targets and objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and New Urban Agenda. Focusing on urban health as an integrative, unifying theme for the SDGs and the NUA, this event will explore these frameworks and other important links between urban health and sustainable development priorities. This networking event will focus on how diverse stakeholders from different sectors can improve the health of their cities while taking advantage of the multiple co-benefits these improvements will bring for equity and social inclusion.

Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in the exchange of strategies and lessons learned from the Latin American context with those from other regions of the world to deepen global collaboration and South-South cooperation around the NUA and SDGs. Through an interactive exercise and panel discussion, the event draws on the expertise of members of LAC-Urban Health, which includes representation from 18 countries, United Nations University, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Wellcome Trust-funded Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project. In its approach, this event aims to 1) spark physical and virtual spaces for knowledge exchange and city-to-city learning, 2) enhance essential partnerships and cross-sectoral collaboration for local SDG and NUA implementation, and 3) share best practices in policies and initiatives that impact urban health and its co-benefits.