Enhancing urban governance for health and well-being in South-East Asian cities: Regional laboratory, framework, cases and assessment tool

Overview

This document is developed by the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia in collaboration with the Regional Social Laboratory on urban governance for health and well-being of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. It studies current practices related to urban governance in select cities of the WHO South-East Asia Region to present a framework and assessment tool for urban health conditions that can help improve the health profiles of cities. Such a health profile is key to conclude evidence-based planning to create ‘heathy cities’.

WHO’s guidance on relevant actions in the healthy city domain is adapted to support low- and middle-income countries and draws from consultations with Member States of the Region on the well-being of city-dwellers. Urban and municipal authorities are encouraged to utilize the framework and tools presented in this document and collaborate with regional healthy city networks. While the context of urban health will continue to evolve, the tools and guidance enumerated in this document can be updated and adapted as appropriate.