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WHO-UN Habitat Global Report on Urban Health
The World Health Organization, in partnership with UN Habitat,recently released a new Global Report on Urban Health, focusing on the current state of health in cities, current challenges, and successful interventions that can help meet them.
We are very pleased to see several IHC core concepts shared in the report, including a significant focus on improving equity in cities through the built environment, infrastructure and services. The report indicates that lack of data in cities is hiding significant inequality in access to as well as outcomes of health programs and facilities.
The report goes on to detail multiple sectors related to overall health in cities, such as universal access to healthcare, the rise of communicable diseases in cities, the need for clean water and basic sanitation, and also the the health impacts of adequate and affordable housing, especially in slums.
As well as providing a comprehensive overview of the health challenges within cities, the report also sets out some of the unique opportunities to achieve greater equity and inclusion. Find the full report, along with executive summary and other interactive features of the report
here
.
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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City - A Conversation with Matthew Desmond
Matthew Desmond, a sociologist at Harvard University and 2015 MacArthur Fellow, published a book earlier this year titled Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
. The book follows the lives of a group of landlords and tenants within some of the poorest neighborhood
s
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the heart of the American Midwest.
As an
Atlantic Monthly
interview
reports
, Desmond creates "
intimate portraits of the circumstances, court hearings, and personal challenges that lead up to, and followed, the eviction process....
He illuminates the reasoning and tactics used to remove tenants from their homes...and the housing conditions that many residents with histories of evictions are forced to cope with for fear of being evicted again."
Please join the IHC member the National Housing Conference for a conversation with Desmond
on his book and the connections between housing and poverty in the United States.
WHEN: Thursday April 28th, 9:30 - 11:30AM ET
WHERE: Washington Court Hotel
525 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC
Find more information and RSVP
here
.
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Global Food Security Symposium 2016
Two-thirds of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050, creating a staggering demand for nutritious, safe, and sustainable food.
This April, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs will host the Global Food Security Symposium 2016. The Symposium will bring together key multi-disciplinary stakeholders to discuss transformations to the global food system necessary to feed growing cities. Participants will explore ideas to facilitate business investments and economic opportunities that can benefit small-scale farmers and urban consumers alike.
At the symposium, the Council also will release a major report recommending specific actions that the US government can take to advance food security in an urban world.
WHEN: April 26th, 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
WHERE:
Ronald Reagan Building
1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington D.C.
The event will be live streamed
Find more information about the Symposium and follow the ongoing blog series on urban food security
here. Register for the Symposium
here.
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CSIS Events on Increasing Infrastructure Investments
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is hosting two panels in the coming weeks focusing on infrastructure and strategies to address
the unmet demand for infrastructure around the world which is estimated to be above $1 trillion per year.
On April 13th, representatives from the Inter-American Investment Corporation, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Bechtel, and Chartered Bank, will discuss the
need for bankable and sustainable infrastructure projects. They will address how donors and the private sector must work together to build capacity and provide technical assistance, and the ways in which infrastructure can become a driver of development and stability. Find more information and RSVP
here
.
On April 27th, CSIS will launch a new report examining how U.S. agencies and multilateral development banks can better incentivize private-sector investment in global infrastructure, titled Barriers to Bankable Infrastructure. The author Helen Moser will be joined by experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the World Bank Group, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. Find more information and RSVP here.
Both of these events highlight the importance of infrastructure planning and investment in cities. IHC hopes to hear how infrastructure investment can be encouraged in a way that is both effective and equitable or all those living in cities.
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In the News and Around the Web
- Read a SolidGround Campaign blog post on Habitat for Humanity South Africa's efforts to upgrade informal settlements in South Africa here.
- Read a Guardian article on Vienna's struggle to help new refugees integrate into the city here.
- Read a CitiScope Article on the Habitat III thematic meeting in South Africa this week focusing on informal settlements here.
- Read a Newsweek article on the connection between rapid urbanization and the rise in diabetes in low and middle income countries here.
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IHC Global - A Coalition for
Inclusive Housing and Sustainable Cities
1424 K St NW, Suite 600
Washington, D.C. 20005
phone: (202) 239-4401
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