City Stories
The Partnership for Healthy Cities presents key accomplishments from cities in its global network, whose leaders have taken on the role of urban health champions. Scroll down to read about cities in the network — more stories to come!
Please also see a full set of case studies on cities and urban health from the World Health Organization.
Athens, Greece
How Athens is saving lives with naloxone
Athens is one of many cities around the world facing an opioid overdose crisis. With support from the Partnership, the city has implemented widely recognized harm reduction programs for people who use drugs and the unhoused population—and has also played a key role in encouraging national-level drug policies.
Case Study: Bengaluru, India
Bengaluru makes strides to comply with state-level and national smoke-free laws
This case study was originally published as part of the World Health Organization's (WHO) report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2023: protect people from tobacco smoke.
Spotlight: Quito Takes Healthy Food Project Citywide
Quito, Ecuador’s City Council to Consider School Policy Proposal
The city of Quito has been working with the Partnership since 2017 to implement healthy school food environments, with great success.
A World No Tobacco Day Dialogue
Meet Two Cities Swapping Strategies on Going Smoke-Free
A conversation with Andrea Crossfield, Greater Manchester (pictured left) and Joanne Young, Melbourne (pictured right).
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Spotlight: Córdoba Chooses Water
Córdoba, Argentina Wants Schoolchildren to Skip Sugary Drinks
In April 2023, the city launched the "Córdoba Chooses Water" campaign.
Ahmedabad, India
To tackle noncommunicable diseases, understanding urban risk factors is critical
Ahmedabad, India, has released a report on a survey of noncommunicable disease (NCD) risk factors that the city has conducted house by house.
Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit
3 Things We Learned from Urban Leaders at the Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit
Three years in the making, last month’s inaugural Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit in London was the largest-ever gathering of the global network.
Spotlight: Food Policy Workshop in Dakar, Senegal
Four cities gather to discuss strategies
Representatives of four West African cities working with the Partnership on food policy interventions—Freetown, Sierra Leone; Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; and Dakar, Senegal—participated in a January 23-26, 2023 workshop in Dakar on the technical and legal considerations of adopting nutrition standards.
Policy Accelerator
How Great Public Health Ideas Become Law: 6 Latin America Cities Prioritizing Health and Safety in 2023
One year into a new policymaking program for city governments, six Latin America cities in the Partnership for Healthy Cities network convened in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic late last year to share progress on building public support and other strategic goals for passing new public health laws.
COVID-19 Response
How 8 Cities Worked Quickly To Slow COVID Infections, Distribute Vaccines and Address Health Disparities
A year ago, amid the global rush to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to as many people as possible, the Partnership for Healthy Cities committed to supporting vaccine equity projects in 18 cities in its network. It was clear that the pandemic was exacerbating health disparities—as was the uneven global vaccine delivery itself—so a package of grants and technical support went to Partnership cities employing innovative approaches to reach their communities.
How Six Cities Are Communicating About COVID-19
Mobilizing Messages
Among cities’ many urgent needs since the pandemic struck a year ago, communicating effectively with the public has been key. The challenge is not just providing basic information about COVID-19 and its effects but also finding the right words and images to encourage people to protect themselves and others from the coronavirus.
Delve into city campaigns in this video.
Lusaka, Zambia
Saving lives through safer roads
An estimated 3,586 people die on Zambia’s roads each year, and about 37 percent of those killed are pedestrians, many in the capital city of Lusaka. The city is determined to improve road safety and joined the Partnership for Healthy Cities to protect children in particular, as they are especially vulnerable to road traffic injuries while walking to and from school.
CityLab 2022
Partnership for Healthy Cities joins CityLab 2022!
October 9-11, 2022: Urban leaders and technical experts from the Partnership for Healthy Cities network and representatives from the World Health Organization, Vital Strategies and Bloomberg Philanthropies (pictured at right) participated in a series of events and discussions at Bloomberg CityLab 2022 in Amsterdam, including a Partnership mayors’ panel and a luncheon.
Bandung, Indonesia
Clearing the air with new smoke-free areas
In May 2021, the city of Bandung passed a law designating eight types of smoke-free areas, including places of worship and children's playgrounds. Mayor Oded Muhammad Danial unveiled the new law to the public on World No Tobacco Day, May 31.
Barcelona, Spain
Assessing the health benefits of a leading urban design initiative
Since joining the Partnership in 2018, Barcelona’s Public Health Agency (ASPB) has been conducting a health impact assessment of three of the city’s Superblocks—a leading urban design initiative aimed at reducing traffic, air and noise pollution. The assessment included surveys with local residents to understand health benefits, specifically changes in physical activity and in the communities’ use of the newly designated public spaces.
Photo: courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Confronting drink driving and speeding to save lives
In 2017, 140 people died from road traffic crashes in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A survey that same year indicated that 43 percent of drivers in the city had consumed alcohol before driving in the past year, revealing a serious drink driving problem. In 2020, research determined that speeding was another major cause of road traffic crashes. The city has since implemented a number of interventions with support from the Partnership for Healthy Cities, including new breathalyzer technology and checkpoint improvements.
Lima, Peru
Building healthier school and restaurant environments
In June 2021, the Municipality of Lima adopted a major policy milestone in its efforts to reduce obesity and noncommunicable diseases: a city ordinance to create healthy food promotion programs, restrict the availability and marketing of unhealthy foods around schools and mandate measures such as the removal of saltshakers in restaurants.
Cali, Colombia
Harnessing pandemic-era policy to improve road safety
Cali launched a no-fee bicycle sharing program with Partnership support in September 2020, featuring a phone application and a communication campaign to encourage cycling, both as a strategy for safe distancing—to help prevent the spread of COVID-19—and as an affordable solution for safe and active mobility.
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Prioritizing food security and nutrition standards
The high rate of informal settlements and urban density in Freetown tested the traditional public health response to COVID-19 and encouraged innovation and experimentation. The Partnership for Healthy Cities supported the city in developing targeted risk communication for specific urban audiences.
Kampala, Uganda
Building a smoke-free and more equitable city
Kampala is the only large metropolis in Uganda and one of the fastest growing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The city is continuing to strengthen compliance with the national 2015 Tobacco Control Act and ensure that all public spaces are smoke-free. With support from the Partnership, Kampala has also doubled down on its COVID-19 pandemic response.
Yangon, Myanmar
Uniting the public through risk communication
By March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had put thousands of workers out of work in Yangon and become a serious health threat. Authorities decided right away that a mass media campaign focused on behavior change would be key for preventing wider spread of the virus and avoiding drastic shutdown measures down the line.
COVID-19 City Communication Campaigns
COVID-19 City Communication Campaigns
Among cities’ many urgent needs since the pandemic struck a year ago, communicating effectively with the public has been key: The challenge is not just providing basic information about COVID-19 and its effects but finding the right words and images to coax people into protecting themselves and others from the coronavirus. This is easier said than done amid widespread misinformation about the pandemic.
Here we highlight just six of the dozens of cities in the Partnership for Healthy Cities global network that have created COVID-19 communications campaigns in recent months, most of them based on the “3W’s”—wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance—but often adapted to local needs.