UN Agencies publicized “Global Report on Urban Health”

UN Agencies publicized “Global Report on Urban Health”

Report “Global report on urban health: equitable, healthier cities for sustainable development, 2016” has been released by World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) showing the health inequities between the richest and poorest urban populations.

• It compared data on health from urban areas of 100 countries.

The report was led and written by the WHO Centre for Health Development in Kobe, Japan.

Highlights of Global Report on Urban Health 2016

• National level wealth does not always determine conditions for health at the city level.
• Megacities in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) have worse conditions for health than smaller cities.
• The capital cities of countries most affected by the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak had some of the poorest conditions for health.
• Achieving meaningful progress in health in cities everywhere depends on reducing health inequity.
• Cities must play a leadership role in the fight to against communicable disease.
• Non communicable diseases present not only a threat to human health, but also have significant economic implications for cities.
• Cities increasingly face the unprecedented dual challenge of under nutrition and over nutrition.
• Despite significant global progress, lack of access to safe and sustainable water and sanitation continues to pose an urgent challenge for cities.
• Cities can be designed and managed in ways that enable healthier behaviour and achieve better health outcomes.
• Urban transport can be transformed to be healthier, safer and more sustainable.
• Targeted housing interventions, greater use of clean energy and improved affordability can help tackle the global challenge of healthy and sustainable urban housing.
• Poor safety and urban violence come at a significant cost to the health of urban residents and the societies where they live.
• In order to bring out a renewed focus on urban governance, the report suggested steps for the empowerment of citizen through information sharing and promoting public private partnerships for delivery of health facilities.

Highlights of Report with respect to India

• Increase in urban population – It is projected to increase from 380 million in 2014 to 600 million by 2031.
• Alleviation of critical health issues – The role of civil society and NGOs will be equally important, along with the government agencies in elimination of critical health issues in urban disadvantaged areas.
• Home to TB – In Mumbai, there are maximum cases of TB. In 2014, it registered 2951 MDR-TB cases which are more than 12% of the cases in the whole nation.
• Urbanization leads to NCDs – Change in lifestyle worked perfectly in favor of non-communicable diseases. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer becomes the leading causes of death in urban areas. These are followed by mental health conditions and respiratory diseases.
• Pedestrians and bicyclists fatality – They have accounted for 44% of road traffic fatalities,= and ranged maximum of 60% in Mumbai.
• Traffic fatalities – Chennai ranked 2nd in the world in terms of traffic fatalities per 1 lakh inhabitants followed by Jaipur, Indore, Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
• Physical and sexual violence against women – Its rate in the cities of India is twice in slums as compared to wealthier areas.
• Inadeqaute provision to meet population’s demand – The key barrier in upgrading and maintaining cities in India is political.
• The report is the updated version of 2010 joint WHO/UN Habitat global report – Hidden Cities: Unmasking and Overcoming Urban Health Inequities.