WHO Healthy City network considers 'perma-crisis' at annual business meeting

Climate change, socio-economic instability, migration and political unrest are are among the factors that cities will have to consider if they want to prioritise health, and the answers include preparedness and resilience.

That was the message that WHO Healthy Cities co-ordinators from across Europe heard at the network's Annual Business Meeting in Bursa, Turkiye. More than 600 participants joined the meeting, where preparedness, equity and the life course were named as key themes for Phase VIII of the network which runs from 2026-2030.

Developing Healthy Communities Chief Executive Edel O'Doherty attended the conference, where she presented outcomes from the PHA-supported Work Well, Live Well workplace health programme in Derry City and Strabane.

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Edel says: "The idea of a perma-crisis, with complex interconnected challenges, came through clearly at the conference. In the coming phase of the Healthy Cities network, we need to sharpen our focus on preparedness and renew our collective commitment to ensure no-one is left behind in Derry City and Strabane."

Participants included more then 70 political leaders. The meeting included the adoption of the Bursa Commitment, which "builds on the Copenhagen Consensus of Mayors and sets the tone for a new chapter of local action for health and wellbeing," says WHO Healthy Cities Lead Kira Fortune.

Participants heard about approaches that can build health and resilience in cities including 'Health In All Policies' which makes health a primary consideration in all local decision-making and the Wellbeing Economy model which adds wellbeing indicators to traditional measures of growth like GDP.

WHO describes a healthy city as one which "is conscious of health and striving to improve it. The requirements are: a commitment to health and a process and structure to achieve it. A healthy city is one that continually creates and improves its physical and social environments and expands the community resources that enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential." Derry City and Strabane has been a designated Healthy City in phases V, VI and VII of the network.

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