World Health Day, celebrated annually on 7 April, marks the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) and is a day used by the Organization, its Member States and partners to highlight a pressing health issue. The theme for World Health Day 2010 was health and urbanization. Urban health as a concept incorporates many areas: the social determinants of health, environmental health, violence, road safety, healthy lifestyles, food safety and security, healthy housing and space, recreational facilities and community belonging. Since 1986, WHO has been promoting urban health through the healthy city programme.
On the occasion of World Health Day 2010, the global initiative “1000 cities, 1000 lives” was promoted. The initiative aimed to engage a 1000 cities across the world in a set of activities intended to create physical, mental and environmental health benefits, provide substantial opportunities for small businesses and provide an overall boost to the well-being of participating cities and their citizens.
On Friday 9 April 2010 a number of activities to promote health equity in urban areas and to improve the health and standard of living of communities took place, including holding mass exercise groups, enlisting the involvement of sporting and entertainment celebrities in activities, conducting special fun events, ensuring healthy eating and no smoking, conducting clean-up campaigns and holding mayors’ forums, etc.
Related links
Community-based initiatives newsletter, Volume 7, issue 2 [pdf 4.53Mb]
Towards making every city a healthy city
