Published Meeting Report: “Advancing health emergency preparedness in cities and urban settings in COVID-19 and beyond”

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the unique considerations that cities and urban settings face in health emergency preparedness. WHO and Singapore established a technical working group on urban preparedness which met six times between February 2021 to April 2021, with representatives from Member States across all WHO regions, partners, city networks, international organizations and all levels of WHO.

At these meetings, working group members shared their experiences of COVID-19 in cities, discussed challenges faced in urban preparedness, explored potential solutions and approaches, roles of key stakeholders, and the tools and resources necessary for risk assessment, gap analysis and capacity building for better urban preparedness.

Members agreed on ten overarching key messages:

1. Preparedness for health emergencies in cities and urban settings must be a priority at the highest level of government;
2. Preparedness goes beyond the health sector, especially at the level of service delivery;
3. Strengthened urban preparedness requires adequate investment;
4. It is critical to ensure that local / city level governments and communities are involved in national health emergency preparedness planning and activities;
5. Developing city-specific approaches to health emergency preparedness is paramount;
6. Working with urban communities, and their groups most at risk of vulnerability, is key to resilience and successful all-hazard risk management;
7. The improved use of local level data for action can help cities be better prepared;
8. There are many tools relevant to cities, but local governments need specific and targeted ones for health emergency preparedness;
9. Global solidarity is key to effective preparedness - even at the local, urban level;
10. Support to countries from the international system can be better consolidated and aligned;

The meeting report can be found here

WHO is developing a framework and guidance on strengthening health emergency preparedness in cities and urban settings for use by national and local governments. This would be based on the working group’s inputs and recommendations and will be published in the second half of 2021.