Mr Chairman, The Honourable Vice Minister of Health, Dr Yin Li;
The Honourable Governor of Liaoning Province;
The Honourable Mayor of Dalian City;
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
I am very pleased to be in the beautiful City of Dalian and attend the 2nd International Mayors Forum for Healthy Cities.
I would like to thank the Mayor of Dalian for his hospitality in hosting this important event.
Throughout the world we are witnessing a period of rapid and unprecedented urbanization.
More people now live in the cities than at any other time in history.
The Western Pacific Region, which I represent as WHO Regional Director, is home to roughly 30% of the world’s population.
Currently, approximately one half of the population is living in urban settings in China. Combined with unprecedented economic growth, China will soon experience level of urbanization we have never seen before.
Urbanization has the potential to bring great benefits to people — jobs, easy access to services and improved health standards.
But living in cities can, as we have seen in many countries in the world, easily lead to the opposite — to unemployment, to a drop in living standards and ultimately to poorer health.
Unplanned and poorly managed urbanization strains water and sanitation systems, impacts access to quality food and safe housing, and hurts the environment.
But even if these issues are addressed through good planning and strong leadership, living in cities tends to change the way we live.
We exercise less, rely too heavily on convenience foods, and invest less energy in developing neighbourhoods ties and a sense of community.
As Regional Director of the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region, I know that all these factors — poor sanitation, unclean water, substandard housing, lack of exercise and reliance on high-fat convenience foods — can have a significant impact on health.
Health care services may go someway towards helping to fix some of these problems — but by the time some one needs a doctor, much of the damage has already been done.
As Regional Director, it is my job to help support countries achieving the highest level of health.
But with increasing urbanization and the associated significant negative changes in our lifestyles, I have to admit that I am stuck.
Where we live, study, work and play dramatically impacts our health.
Yet for the most part, the health sector has little influence or power to change these things.
So here lies the great "health sector" paradox of the 21st century.
We, in the health sector, can treat the sick.
But we struggle to keep people healthy.
The power to keep people healthy lies, for the most part, outside the health sector.
It lies with you — the Mayors and city leaders who are responsible for education, for transport, for marketing of food, for housing, for sanitation, for designing our urban environment to encourage us to take more exercise, for addressing all the factors that we know can help keep people healthy.
If these issues are not addressed, they can make us sick.
China, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, understood this health paradox a long time ago.
As early as 1950s, the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee was established.
The Committee well understood that non-health sector leadership could improve health and keep people healthy.
This Committee was — and still is — led by the top leadership in the country, and from its outset has involved multiple sectors.
Not only the health sector, but all the sectors have the power and ability to help keep people healthy.
The Hygienic City initiative in China in 1989 is a very good example of one of the multisectoral initiatives under the leadership of the National Patriotic Campaign Committee.
Based on the positive contributions and the framework provided by the Hygienic City initiative, China now has over 100 designated hygienic cities and nine pilot Healthy Cities.
Cities that are striving to bring different sectors together to design and manage urban settings in a way that will maximize the health benefits for their populations.
Honourable Mayors, you can make a difference in your cities — in how they look, how they feel and, most importantly to me, how they help keep people healthy and improve well- being.
You have the political mandate to change the environment and strengthen the determinants of a healthy life.
The health sector can provide you with some direction. It can help you monitor trends and health outcomes.
But it is you who can mobilize and utilize the resources to truly develop the health and well-being of your people.
Indeed, keeping your population healthy and safe is a fundamental role of a city leader.
Healthy populations are productive populations.
Productive populations can pay for better services and more supportive environments, which in turn will lead to healthier and more productive populations.
And so the cycle goes on.
Investments in the health of your people can come in many ways.
They can come through education, improved sanitation and water services, tackling poor housing, and addressing the marketing of unhealthy foods and the availability and acceptability of tobacco products.
You can invest in your people by providing greater opportunities for exercise and physical activity and by helping build a sense of community and involvement in society.
All of these are investments in health and ultimately an investment in wealth.
WHO recommends the "Healthy Cities" approach as an effective way to bring together the different sectors that are truly responsible for promoting and supporting health and well-being of the citizen.
Many different models and networks exist that promote and support healthy cities.
No one model fits all, and much of the strength of this movement comes from innovative practices and the spontaneous relationships between cities and groups of people involved.
The Healthy City initiative promoted by WHO has been in existence for more than three decades.
More than 3000 cities now participate globally, including 600 in this Region alone.
The Healthy Cities movement was initiated in the Western Pacific Region in the late 1980s as an integrated approach to promote leadership and commitment of municipal governments, multisectoral action and community participation.
Initially, it was oriented towards environmental health.
Now, it also includes many more public health issues that require multi-sectoral action, such as tobacco control, food safety and promotion of healthier lifestyles.
The theme of this year's World Health Day — "1000 cities and 1000 lives" resulted in nearly 1400 registrations globally.
Over one third of these registrations came from China.
Given the developments and interest, we are at an appropriate time for scaling up and expanding Healthy Cities in the Region.
WHO is working with its Member States to develop national resource centres and technical networks and to engage Ministries of Health for ensuring the sustainable development of Healthy Cities.
China has so much to offer the rest of the world. As I mentioned earlier, China understood the "health sector paradox" long before many other countries.
A wealth of knowledge in working across sectors to keep people healthy and to develop strong leadership and effective planning has been created in the 60 years since the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee was first formed.
My wish then is that over the course of this forum, your knowledge and experience can be captured — and shared with your counterparts in China and your many counterparts throughout the world.
We are all grappling with the same urban living issues and will increasingly have to deal with them as our urban populations expand.
WHO would like to work with you to learn from your experience and to document models of best practices.
We would also like to work with you to develop a "think tank" or resource centre that could support the roll-out of best practices throughout the country.
I am pleased to announce a joint programme of certification of Healthy Cities in China by WHO and the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee.
This will be the first such joint certification programme in which WHO collaborates with a National Government.
It is, therefore, important to do it right.
We will work closely to develop appropriate indicators and evaluation criteria for this certification to make this as a model for other countries in the Western Pacific Region.
As you know we are organizing a three-day meeting of National Focal Points for Healthy Cities immediately after this Mayors forum to finalize the Regional Framework for Scaling up and Expanding Healthy Cities in the Western Pacific Region.
Your contributions and experience are going to be vital to the success of this framework.
I would like to once again thank the Ministry of Health, China, and the Dalian City Government for their support and for hosting these events.
Finally, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, WHO will continue to engage and support our Member States to ensure that we can ride the tide of urbanization to bring better health outcomes, equity and prosperity for our people.
I wish you all success in your discussions and deliberations at this 2nd International Mayors' Forum.
Thank you.