Città e salute. Il ruolo delle città nel promuovere innovazioni per la governance della salute a livello locale e globale

In 2017, the Italian Ministry of Health presented the “Rome Urban Health Declaration” which calls upon civil society actors and local administration as necessary to the efforts of providing a safe urban environment and increasing the inhabitants’ wellbeing. Global and EU urban policy agenda as well advocate for the involvement of civil society to achieve sustainable development. However, in the fight to COVID 19 pandemic, countries adopted a centralized approach, not integrating local actors in the definition of the recovery plans, exposing the communities to critical challenges. Starting from an overview of the role of cities in the Global Governance of Health (GHG) and examples, based on an earlier study, the paper will investigate innovative policies, governance arrangements and projects enabling multi-stakeholder sharing, co-management and collective ownership of urban health and health infrastructures. It will ultimately suggest leveraging on cities’ capabilities, their soft and hard legal power, diplomatic capacity as a possible solution to enhance global health security. However, in agreement with other scholars in the field, it’s argue that urban health co-governance could contribute to a broader definition of urban health, which is not limited to the protection against infectious diseases but includes access to a safe urban environment and different elements related to urban welfare.