NEWS

         

As we move beyond the initial emergency, the collaborative platform Cities for Global Health - launched  in early March 2020 in response to the urgent demands presented by the pandemic, and currently with more than 600 examples of crisis management initiatives from 33 countries and over 100 cities -  is now helping to create a space for sharing recovery and transformation plans for metropolitan areas, cities and regions.

The response of governments to this crisis must account for the urgency of the situation, while embracing both short- and long-term perspectives. That’s why we want to provide local and regional decision-makers with ideas, policy models and action plans that not only react to the COVID-19 outbreak, but also serve as a means to tackle future emergencies, considering the unrelenting march of urbanisation, high density urban populations and other health, economic and environmental crises to come.

This platform - co-led by Metropolis, UCLG and AL-LAs, and supported by the Barcelona City Council - presents initiatives, projects and actions, directly uploaded by their creators, both local and regional government representatives and policy-makers, and individuals and members of a community or local organisations. 

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have consequences on all aspects of life in urban areas. Local, regional and metropolitan governments around the world have stepped up to the challenge and are responding quickly and creatively to unprecedented difficulties. But they are also reacting to the opportunities that have arisen by rethinking the role of cities and metropolitan areas in emergency situations, as asserted in our recently launched Call to rethink our metropolitan spaces. 

Engaging the community for more inclusive cities

In a fast-moving crisis, local communities have also a critical role to play when the government response shows gaps and limitations. Faced with the emerging global economic, social and health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, communities are finding solutions to “glocal” problems–from the fight against poverty and inequality, to promoting gender equality and human rights, to tackling climate change. 

That’s why Cities for Global Health also collates local initiatives involving direct community engagement that aim to tackle the crisis from a bottom-up approach. 

Cities for Global Health is part of the Metropolis’ crisis management response and goes hand-in-hand with the “Live Learning Experience: Beyond the immediate response to the outbreak”, developed by UCLG and supported by UN-Habitat and Metropolis. It also makes a key contribution to the “Emergency Governance Initiative for Cities and Regions” (EGI) by including models and examples that have been implemented globally.

For further information about the platform, please contact Oscar Chamat, our Research and Policy Officer at the Secretariat General

More information at:  www.citiesforglobalhealth.org and #Cities4GlobalHealth