The Power of Cities: Tackling Noncommunicable Diseases and Road Traffic Injuries

This report from the World Health Organization (WHO) discusses the health of cities and particularly focuses on how urbanization, city leaders, and urban design affect public health outcomes such as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and road safety. Cities, which are home to more than half of the world's population, both face and can impact several public health challenges: sanitation, air pollution, urban violence, road safety, and access to healthy food and spaces. Road traffic injuries and NCDs are two of the largest issues in urban health, as NCDs account for 71% of all global deaths each year, and road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 5-29 years old. This report discusses city leaders' opportunity and obligation to protect the health and wellbeing of their population by defining priorities, uniting stakeholders, and implementing health policies and programs to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 for making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The report urges that addressing both NCDs and road traffic injuries in cities requires multisectoral collaboration across the health, transport, housing, and education industries, and it emphasizes that the power of cities comes from community engagement, local partnerships, and agility in making change.

This report describes ten specific intervention areas to address NCDs and road traffic injuries in cities, assesses internal and external drivers for tackling these issues, and discusses common challenges in urban environments. Readers can also find nineteen case studies from cities around the world and access several other technical resources about NCDs and road traffic in cities in the areas of tobacco, healthy food, physical activity, air pollution, and urban planning.