22 Cities Unite in New Global Partnership to Strengthen Urban Resilience

 

The Resilient Cities Network and Sustainable Markets Initiative’s (SMI’s) Health Systems Task Force, with support of Reckitt and Bupa, have today (4th June) launched a major new partnership to strengthen urban resilience by advancing public health and climate action in cities around the world.

This SMI Lighthouse Project, titled Resilient Cities, Reimagining Health, brings together 22 cities across 15 countries, representing over 100 million people, to take collective action on climate-related health risks through city-led illness prevention, innovation, and collaboration.

With health challenges rapidly worsening due to climate change, cities can help drive preventative approaches and improve healthcare outcomes for residents, reducing healthcare systems’ costs and emissions, and enhancing resilience.

These actions lay the foundation for healthier, more inclusive urban environments – where equitable access to health services and climate-resilient living conditions are prioritized. At the core of the new partnership is a new Community of Practice, a collaborative platform designed to accelerate action that prioritizes the health and wellbeing of populations most at risk.

Chaired by senior city officials from Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Greater Manchester, and Lagos, the new Community of Practice aims to:

• Enhance the evidence base on the efficacy and co-benefits of preventative solutions
• Develop and test practical new tools to build capacity within cities to support decision-making and unlock implementation
• Pilot and implement public health interventions that are climate-sensitive, cost-effective, and equitable
• Demonstrate the role that wider stakeholders – including healthcare – can play in supporting health and wellbeing in cities around the world

This major global initiative responds to an urgent need to move beyond reactive, treatment-based healthcare systems, toward preventative, inclusive, and climate-smart urban health strategies. With worsening climate-related health risks—from extreme heat to poor air quality—cities must play a central role in safeguarding public health while reducing system-wide costs and emissions.

This effort recognises that health systems are not only critical responders to climate threats, but also powerful champions of action, with the potential to shape healthier, more inclusive cities through advocacy, innovation, and care delivery.

In a seminal report, funded by The Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by Yale University School of Public Health and Resilient Cities Network, over 80% of surveyed cities expressed interest in contributing data, engaging in peer learning through a Community of Practice, and piloting solutions at the intersection of urban climate resilience, public health, and equity.

This research initiated a Community of Practice for climate and health funded by The Rockefeller Foundation. The Community of Practice is now being scaled up by Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Health Systems Task Force with technical support from Mode Economics and Yale University School of Public Health.

The same research, a collaboration between Resilient Cities Network and the Yale School of Public Health, showed that although 60% of cities have a climate resilience plan, only 23% of cities have a comprehensive plan that concurrently addresses health. Essential resources like early warning systems and health surveillance capabilities are often inadequate for decision-making.

This effort also aligns with the private sector’s vision, under the joint mission of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy, through innovative cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder initiatives to tackle some of the largest challenges of our time.

Together with an advisory group of health and climate experts from philanthropy, academia and the private sector, chaired by Dr Jeannette Ickovics of Yale University, participating cities will collaborate across regions to share insights, trial innovative approaches, and engage global experts through a structured peer learning format.

Outputs from the partnership will include:

1. The Case for Action: Demonstrating the need for place-based, climate-sensitive, preventative health approaches, including: quantitative evidence on how climate will impact public health needs, key interventions to improve health, reduce costs and emissions, build equity and resilience, and a high-level framework for successful, city-led implementation.

2. ‘Practical Guide for Cities’: A hands-on resource developed to help cities embed preventative healthcare and health equity considerations directly into their climate plans and resilience strategies. This guide will provide actionable steps, informed by peer experiences, to strengthen local capacity and planning.

3. Urban Health Resilience Screening tool: A bespoke tool created to help cities in the Community of Practice assess and build portfolios of implementable, preventative, climate-sensitive city projects. It will enable cities to:

• Identify and prioritise tailored interventions that address their specific urban health risks
• Evaluate the co-benefits of these interventions, including for public health, health system resilience, equity and decarbonisation (both quantitative and qualitative)
• Build compelling investment cases and funding models to support the delivery and scale-up of impactful, inclusive solutions

Dr. Folayinka Dania, Chief Resilience Officer for Lagos, Nigeria, said: “This Community of Practice represents a major step forward for city-led preventative interventions that also support climate resilience—centering health, equity, and the lived realities of city residents. By empowering cities to lead with practical solutions and shared learning, we’re helping to meet today’s challenges while building a more just, healthier, and sustainable future.”

Iñaki Ereño, CEO, Bupa Group, and member of the Sustainable Markets Health Systems Task Force said: “Healthcare must continually evolve to meet the challenges people face in a changing climate. By reimagining cities with health at their core and partnering with cities to co-create practical and meaningful solutions to these challenges, we can build a new era of healthcare – one that not only treats illness but strengthens healthcare systems resilience, empowers communities to thrive, and reduces the impact of healthcare on our planet.”

Dr Kathy Oldham OBE, Chief Resilience Officer, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and Jilla Burgess-Allen, Director of Public Health, Stockport Council and GM Public Health Lead for Climate Change, said: “We are delighted that Greater Manchester is joining this global Community of Practice, which places health and equity at the heart of climate action. Our region is committed to working with cities around the world to tackle the shared challenges posed by a changing climate. By embedding health within our resilience strategies, and learning from others, we can accelerate practical, preventative solutions that protect our communities, reduce emissions, and build a fairer, healthier future for all.”

Katrin Bruebach, Global Director, Programs and Delivery for the Resilient Cities Network, said: “The health impacts of climate change are already being felt across our cities—and they are not felt equally. Through this Community of Practice, cities are not just sharing solutions; they are stepping up to lead a global movement that puts people’s health, equity, and resilience at the heart of climate action. This is how we move from ambition to action, and from knowledge to meaningful impact.”

Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, CEO of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, said: “At the Sustainable Markets Initiative, we believe that place-based projects are crucial in our effort to put Nature, people, and planet at the heart of global value creation. And scaling up this effort across 22 cities, representing over 100 million people, though Resilient Cities, Reimagining Health is exactly the kind of collaboration and momentum that we need.”

Kris Licht, CEO of Reckitt and member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force, said: “As climate change intensifies public health challenges, adding pressure to health systems, with vulnerable and low-income communities being most affected, we need to rethink our approach to health, moving from a top-down, treatment-based model, to a more holistic one that emphasises keeping people well. Cities are on the front line of both climate change and public health. By aligning innovation and investment, this initiative is a critical step in building stronger, more equitable health systems and cities. It exemplifies the type of collaborative, cross-sectoral effort we need to create lasting impact at scale.”

Marcus Belchior, CEO of Rio De Janeiro’s Operations and Resilience Center, said: “Rio de Janeiro, building on its strong history of climate engagement since the 1992 Earth Summit, reaffirms its commitment by co-leading this crucial R-Cities initiative alongside Mexico City, Greater Manchester and Lagos. Discussing the impacts of climate change on human health and collaborating with other major cities will allow us to find effective solutions together and implement concrete actions to tackle this global challenge”.

Myriam Vilma Urzúa Venegas, Secretary of Comprehensive Risk Management and Civil Protection for Mexico City, said: “Mexico City recognizes that the impacts of climate change on health and equity are urgent challenges that require integrated and collaborative responses. For this reason, we welcome this initiative, which strengthens Communities of Practice to advance co-developed solutions. Through the Secretariat of Comprehensive Risk Management and Civil Protection, in coordination with our Government’s Environment Secretariat and Health Secretariat, we are promoting a joint agenda that prioritizes community action, improved early warning systems for extreme temperatures, health response protocols, and the implementation of nature-based solutions. Our commitment is clear: to protect the health and well-being of the most vulnerable populations—especially children and older adults—through preventive actions that reduce risk and promote urban resilience.”

Oliver Walker, Executive Director, Mode Economics, said: “Cities are facing a future of huge urban growth and increasing effects of climate which together will have significant implications for the health of urban people and the burden on urban health systems, emissions and equity. This programme will work closely with cities to identify and action place-based preventative solutions which are high impact, reduce costs and bring additional benefits, creating a healthier, more resilient and equitable future for all urban populations.”

Cities confirmed to be taking part in the Community of Practice are:

Berkeley, United States Broward County, United States Cape Town, South Africa Christchurch, New Zealand Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Colima, Mexico Glasgow, UK Greater Manchester, UK Lagos, Nigeria London, UK Mexico City, Mexico Montevideo, Uruguay Nairobi, Kenya Penang, Malaysia Ramallah, State of Palestine Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Salvador, Brazil Santa Fe, Argentina Santiago, Chile Semarang, Indonesia Surat, India Sydney, Australia

 

 

Source: Resilient Cities Network