ICUH 2016 aims to improve health in cities worldwide

Hundreds of researchers, educators, community leaders, practitioners, and policy makers from all regions of the world will convene in San Francisco, California from April 1-4 to advance understanding of actions needed to improve health and health equity in cities worldwide. This year marks the 13th annual conference (ICUH 2016) organized by the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) in collaboration with the American Association of Geographers. The theme of the event, "Place & Health," will feature insights from diverse groups of multi-disciplinary experts in fields such as urban planning, architecture, transportation, housing, environmental health, public health, and health care delivery.

"Attention to cities has grown more visible worldwide with the recent adoption by the United Nations of the first-ever urban goal (Goal 11) among the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the creation of the 'New Urban Agenda' as planning continues for the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador in October of 2016. The International Society for Urban Health is committed to assuring that strategies that advance urban health, as priorities in all such plans with cross-cutting agendas across other goals for health, water-sanitation, hunger and food security, gender equality and women's empowerment, etc.," said Dr. Shamim Talukder, ISUH's President and CEO of Eminence Associates for Social Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The conference kicks off with the launch of a new WHO/UN HABITAT Global Report on Urban Health. The timely report is instrumental for countries and cities to implement the new Sustainable Development Goals, particularly for health and urban settings, and to achieve universal health coverage. The report synthesizes new data from over 100 cities worldwide on the relationship between health and urban settings, including patterns of health inequities, along with evidence for the opportunity of cities to act across many sectors of government and society to improve health outcomes.

"The ICUH takes place at a decisive moment in history where we can reshape urban environments and health systems for the majority of the world's population that live in cities, and create equitable, healthier cities for sustainable development. Similarly, we must collectively address the health challenges faced by hundreds of millions of vulnerable people currently living in cities, such as the 850 million people living in slums globally, projected to increase to 2 billion by 2050," said Alex Ross, Director of the World Health Organization Centre for Health Development in Kobe, Japan, which produced the Global Report.

"As global trends like population aging and urbanization underscore the importance of urban health, the role of ISUH will only become more significant as the pre-eminent global organization exclusively focused on urban health and health inequities," said Jo Ivey Boufford, MD, President of The New York Academy of Medicine, the Secretariat for ISUH.

"The AAG is pleased to collaborate with The New York Academy of Medicine and the International Society of Urban Health on the joint international symposium on Geography and Urban Health. With this collaboration we aim to foster interdisciplinary and international collaborations in team science, geodesign for healthy urban environments, GIScience advances in health research and technology transfer, and geographic or biomedical research which addresses global health needs," said Douglas Richardson, Executive Director of the American Association of Geographers.