We are 10-year global interdisciplinary research programme under the umbrella of ICSU - the International Council of Science. Over half of the world’s population lives in cities, and this number is increasing by about 2% annually. More than two billion urban dwellers are expected to be added over the next three decades, a significant proportion of whom will be living in informal or slum settlement
s. Urban areas are extremely complex environments in which environmental, social, cultural and economic factors influence people’s health and wellbeing. Urban governance and decision-making structures associated with managing these complex factors are comprised of elements that vary across different regional and local contexts. Better use of scientific knowledge can have a positive impact on urban health and wellbeing. The challenge for the scientific community is to generate and communicate this knowledge in a way that can usefully inform policy choices. As a way of addressing this challenge, the International Council for Science (ICSU) developed this science programme, co-sponsored by the Inter-academy Medical Panel (IAMP) and the United Nations University (UNU). The programme proposes a new conceptual framework for considering the multi-factorial nature of both determinants and manifestations of health and wellbeing in urban populations and it takes a systems approach for improving the understanding of health in cities and engaging with urban communities in the process of creating and transferring knowledge.
