2014•12•12     Xiamen

A team of  researchers from the UNU International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH) and the UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), led by Professor Anthony Capon, Director of UNU-IIGH, participated in the Xiamen Expert Workshop organized by the International Council for Science (ICSU) interdisciplinary programme on Health and Wellbeing in the Changing Urban Environment: A Systems Analysis Approach. The workshop was hosted by the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS-IUE) on 8–10 December 2014, bringing together leading global health, environmental and social scientists to launch the programme and define priorities in global research on urban health and well-being. Participants included scientific experts from more than 20 countries and every continent in a wide range of fields, from urban planning and epidemiology to development economics, engineering and public health.

Photo: UNU-IIGH

The newly-initiated Urban Health and Well-being Programme will respond to the pressing need for better understanding of the underlying structures and processes that influence human health in cities. Currently, global urban populations are growing by more than 1 million every week, in a context of uncertainty over the effects of climate change, resource depletion and other overarching drivers of human welfare in the 21st century. Protecting and promoting health will increasingly depend on decisions made within and about urban systems. Through the application of systems approaches, including interdisciplinary quantitative modelling in an eco-social framework and the co-production of knowledge with non-scientific stakeholders, the programme will seek solutions for improving urban design and management and bettering the lives of billions of urban dwellers worldwide.

UNU co-sponsors the Urban Health and Well-being Programme, together with The Interacademy Medical Panel (IAMP), and was extensively involved in planning and preparing the workshop, which featured the inauguration of the International Programme Office, also hosted by CAS-IUE, and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between CAS-IUE and UNU-IIGH to further their collaboration on research and capacity-building in urban health. UNU research input to the global program is led by the interdisciplinary urban research done by UNU-IAS in Tokyo and UNU-IIGH in Kuala Lumpur.

Photo: UNU-IIGH

In attendance from UNU were Professor Anthony Capon (UNU-IIGH), Prof. Barry Newell (UNU-IIGH), Dr. José Siri (UNU-IIGH), Dr. Katrina Proust (UNU-IIGH), Dr. Jose Puppim de Oliveira (UNU-IAS), Dr. Christopher Doll (UNU-IAS), and Dr. Zhixiao Ma (UNU-IAS).

For more information on the new research collaboration see the press release and the following media coverage:

Global Science Programme to Focus on Urban Wellbeing (BBC)
Meeting of Urban Health and Wellbeing Int’l Programme held in Xiamen (Xinhuanet Photo Gallery)