These Three Cities Honored For Their Public Health Achievements

Yes, the world is becoming more city, as I’ve described before in Forbes. That’s city with a “c,” meaning an increasing percentage of the world’s population is living in urban settings. That means that cities are playing increasing roles in more and more people’s health. That role can be bad if cities allow pollution, crime, accidents and other health threats to grow. Or it can be good as evidenced by the three cities that earned the 2025 Partnership for Healthy Cities Awards given during the 2025 edition of the Partnership for Healthy Cities Summit held in March in Paris, France.

The Partnership for Healthy Cities Network

The Summit was co-hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the World Health Organization (WHO), Vital Strategies, and, of course, the City of Paris. It brought together mayors and officials from 61 different cities around the world that are already part of the Partnership for Healthy Cities network.

Kelly Larson, MPH, who directs this Partnership for Bloomberg Philanthropies, indicated that this global network now has all told 74 cities. It was initially launched in 2017 and has steadily grown since. “The first step in joining this network is to have buy in from the mayor or the equivalent,” she explained. “It includes high, middle and low income cities.” She added, “We’ve identified specific non-communicable disease or injury issues that the cities can choose from to work on: tobacco, food policy, road safety, overdose prevention, pollution surveillance and most recently dealing with heat.”

During the Summit the participants discussed the biggest public health issues facing cities and the world and how to, you know, actually do something about these issues rather than just blame others. This Partnership includes a Policy Accelerator that offers training and support for cities do things like what the three honored cities have done. Those cities won their awards because they made good concrete in preventing either noncommunicable diseases or injuries or both.

In a statement, Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, and 108th mayor of New York City reminded everyone, “Noncommunicable diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and injuries are responsible for more than 80% of all deaths globally, but the good news is: They are preventable.”

The Three 2025 Partnership for Healthy Cities Awardees

So without further ado, here are the three winners and what they do and have done:

• Córdoba, Argentina: Located in central Argentina, the second-most populous city in Argentina after Buenos Aires passed a new policy that will eliminate sugary and artificially-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed foods from all of their schools by 2026. Such beverages and foods have been associated with increased risks of cancer and different NCDs. This policy has already been implemented in 26 schools so far.
• Fortaleza, Brazil: This is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil and the country’s fourth largest city. The city issued an air quality surveillance decree in 2023 to monitor for the presence of air pollutants and how they may affect their population’s health. After all, you can’t address what you can’t see. And you certainly can see all of pollution in the air.
• Greater Manchester, UK: Yes, this is the place in North West England with the famous football teams. This city tackled smoking, which is linked to different cancers and lung problems, by expanding the number of available smoke-free areas and providing workshops, consultations, toolkits and other types of guidance to help people and places go smoking-free. For example, the city established its first ever smoke-free park, which is 6.5 acres in size.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the winners by saying in statement, “Cities are at the forefront of the fight against noncommunicable diseases and injuries. The progress made in Córdoba, Fortaleza, and Greater Manchester is not only improving health today but also setting a model for others to follow.”

What’s Next For The Partnership for Healthy Cities Network

These awardees have shown what being committed to improving the health and lives their residents and following scientific evidence can do. That’s something that you don’t always see at the national government level these days. For example, in the U.S., recent major cuts in public health personnel, funding and resources may make you wonder how much commitment there is to improving the health of the population. There’s also been substantial cuts in what the U.S. is providing to major organizations that have been providing health and public health services around the world. All of this means that unless someone else steps up to fill these new gaps, the health of people around the world could suffer.

That means that an increasing proportion of the public health responsibiilties could fall on the shoulders of cities. Larson acknowledged “This is a challenging time for public health around the world.” But she was optimistic about what cities can do and has been by the commitments that she has seen with cities and their mayors. “I believe in the power of cities.” She pointed out what happened in New York City when Bloomberg was mayor, “Life expectancies in NYC increased by 3 years. We can prioritize cities and public health using model of Mike’s tenure as mayor.” In other words, a city situation could end up being quite good.