As part of its activities to mark World Cities Day on 31 October, the Ministry of Public Health is highlighting the contribution of Qatar’s Heathy City Program in supporting local and global health.

Earlier this month, Qatar was officially awarded World Health Organization Healthy City status for all eight municipalities, making Qatar the first country in the world to achieve this prestigious accreditation for all its cities.

Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, explained how the Healthy City Program supports the health and wellbeing of Qatar’s population. “The initiative aims to improve the health of Qatar’s population through the collaborative efforts of multiple sectors across Qatar, all working together to sustain a commitment to health and foster public health action in the settings of every-day life.”

“For Qatar to have become the first country in the world to achieve Healthy City status for all its cities demonstrates the political advocacy for health and governmental commitment to regional and global movement towards achieving better public health outcomes using the ‘Health in all Policies’ approach as a framework for action. It also aims to achieve the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 goals, most of which are related to local action and local leadership,” added Her Excellency Dr. Al Kuwari.

In line with this year’s World Cities Day theme ‘Act Local to Go Global’, Dr. Sadriya Al Kohji, Chair of the Healthy City Network in Qatar, said that in addition to supporting the health of Qatar’s population, the Healthy City Program related initiatives in Qatar are acting as a model for countries around the world.

“With the eyes of the world on Qatar as host of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, we are proud to share our experience and approach to the Healthy City Program with people from across the globe. In the coming weeks and months, more than a million football fans will come to Qatar to attend the tournament matches and experience all that Qatar has to offer. We are confident that our Healthy Cities program will contribute to enhancing their experience of Qatar and inspire the initiation of similar programs across the world,” said Dr. Al Kohji.

The Healthy City Program in Qatar serves one of the strategic projects under the “Health in All Policies” system wide priority within the National Health Strategy 2018-2022. Healthy City accreditation is granted to cities around the world which meet the strict criteria set by the WHO.

Source: Ministry of Public Health