This course proposes an overview of current global health challenges drawing on the insights of several academic disciplines including medicine, public health, law, economics, social sciences and humanities. This interdisciplinary approach will guide the student into seven critical topics in global health.
Sustainable Urban Development by Roderick John Lawrence
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Do curso por University of Geneva
Saúde Global: Uma Visão Interdisciplinar
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The Environment, Sustainable Development and Health
In this module we consider the relationship between the environment, sustainable development and health.
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Rafael Ruiz De CastañedaInstitute of Global Health - Faculty of Medicine
University of Geneva
Antoine FlahaultProfessor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Global Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva) and co-Director of Centre Virchow-Villermé (Université Paris Descartes)
University of Geneva and Université Paris Descartes – Sorbonne Paris Cité
[MUSIC]
Welcome to this presentation on sustainable urban development.
The outline of my presentation will be, how do we make the linkages between
environment, health and sustainable development?
Recall the first principle of the Rio Declaration of 1992.
Explain how health is integrated into Agenda 21,
the Aalborg Charter, and other official United Nations documents.
And provide a concrete example of implementation
provided by the WHO Healthy Cities Project.
So, the Pedagogical Objectives of this presentation are to think about
the relationships between environment, health, and sustainable development.
To understand the way that health was integrated
into the United Nations documents from 1992 onwards.
To learn about the pertinence of urban health and
to learn about the contribution of the WHO, Healthy Cities Project.
Let's begin by understanding the linkages between environment health and
sustainable development.
Sustainable development was first defined by the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature in 1980 in the World Conservation Strategy.
It was primarily concerned with conserving natural resources.
A broader definition was then adopted by
the World Commission on Environment and Development.
Which published that definition in the Report in 1987.
Sustainable development has been on the agenda since that date, and
it's been interpreted in many different ways, sometimes conflicting ways.
It is a contested concept.
For some, sustainable development is even an oxymor because
development cannot be sustained continually in a finite world.
For others sustainable development has become an instrument for marketing.
When we consider petroleum companies and the way they've used it in recent years.
But that's not our concern today.
What is extremely important is to understand that health
is a key component of sustainable development.
And that it is really at the intersection between the social, economic,
environmental dimensions of that concept.
If we adopt the interdisciplinary interpretation of health that I
presented in week one, one then sees that it's important to understand
those dimensions of the environment, of the local economy.
And of living and working conditions and
of social organization that impact on health and quality of life.
And the point is that we need to sustain these over the long-term if we're
putting it in the context of sustainable development.
That is not necessarily the case, as we find many Eastern European countries
with declining populations, declining life expectancy at birth.
And so, the challenge of sustainable development
is real in many so-called developed countries in the world today.
When we look at the United Nations documentation on sustainable development,
one finds that health has had a relatively important place on the agenda.
Agenda 21 is a program of action founded on 27 principles.
And the Rio Declaration is a document which is meant to promote sustainable
development.
These documents clearly state that health and quality of life our human right
and therefore sustainable development is not simply a biocentric concept, but
indeed an anthropocentric one.
And human health is being given a high priority.
When one looks at the Rio Declaration,
one finds that health is addressed through education, employment,
inequalities, social justice, human rights and democracy.
And we know that these all play an important role in health and
quality of life.
When we delve into health in Agenda 21 we find that 4 of
the 40 chapters deal with health and sustainable development.
And that there are at least 200 references to health in Agenda 21 as
identified by the World Health Organization in 1997.
Let me now turn to the whole question about health in an urban context.
And I think it's extremely important to remember that when we're
talking about sustainable development, we're often talking about
development in an urbanizing world because since 2008,
not less than half the world's population live in urbanized areas.
Indeed, 80% of European citizens live in urbanized areas.
And we know that health risks can be greater in
urban areas compared with rural areas.
Indeed, we have to even consider the health challenges of specific groups,
such as children, the elderly and women who spend much of their time indoors.
And last, but not least, it's important to remember
that life expectancy in some European cities such as Copenhagen
is lower than the national average for Denmark.
Based on this understanding it's important to understand that the city is the context
for the living and working conditions of the more majority of the population today.
And that the city can be considered as a metabolism in which imports of energy,
food, water, and services are necessary to sustain the population.
At the same time urban populations are producing waste,
discharges of water, carbon dioxide, and solid waste which must be dealt
with in order to sustain that population over the long term.
And this is one of the core challenges of urban sustainability today and
how it should be tied to health and quality of life.
So, there are multiple factors that influence urban health that are all under
agenda of sustainable development at the local level.
And in this respect,
it's worth recalling that very interesting research has been done in the past
which uses the broad interdisciplinary perspective that I advocate.
And I refer specifically to the program of UNESCO back in the 1970s and
the remarkable documentation provided by Stephen Boyden and
his colleagues at Australian National University on the case of Hong Kong,
and how that city developed after British colonization in 1841 through until 1970.
And that urbanization, industrialization, change of agricultural production,
housing and working conditions all impacted on health and
quality of life over that long-term period.
When we're talking about implementing sustainable development,
the urban context becomes extremely important for another reason, and
that is chapter 28 of Agenda 21 said that local authorities should be
concerned with implementing the sustainable development agenda.
And in this context the first European conference on sustainable cities and
towns was held in Denmark in May 1994.
And it led to a charter which as been endorsed by
hundreds of mayors of local authorities and cities around the world.
Ten years later this movement led to the definition of the commitments,
and these have simply re-committed mayors and local authorities
to the implementation of sustainable development at the local level.
Before I finish this presentation, I must mention the contribution
of the World Health Organization and especially it's healthy cities project.
It's very important to recall that the World Health Organization traditionally
dealt with ministers of health, that is officials at the national level.
And here we have a program that is specifically dealing with mayors
at the local level.
So, there's a complete change in the stake holders involved and
of course the reason is that we want to address people that are making
decisions that affect the housing and working conditions of everyday life.
The definition of a healthy city provided by Hancock and Duhl is interesting.
And shows that we're not trying to achieve standards, but
continual improvement in the health and quality of life of urban populations.
That definition was provided well before Agenda
21 was adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
And so the World Health Organization has been a forerunner in
promoting health quality of life and the principles of
sustainable development through the healthy cities project.
In the European region of the World Health Organization, there have been five phases.
We're in the fifth phase today and these phases show the increasing commitment
of local authorities to the principles of the Healthy Cities project.
This is extremely important, because as we noted in the beginning of this
presentation, we're dealing with multiple scales and time frames.
And what is extremely important to remember is that each contribution
at the level of authorities at the local level can
impact and change circumstances at the international level.
There is further reading provided at the end of this
presentation if you would like to take these issues on further.
And a reference is explicitly given
to the web page of the WHO Healthy Cities Project.
I thank you for your attention.
[MUSIC]
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