1. Urban Health and Wellbeing Program
Mohd Nordin Hasan
ICSU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Dynamiques urbaines et enjeux sanitaires
Paris, September 2013
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2. Introduction
 A new approach to project planning and
development
 Will overcome compartmentalised science and policy
planning and implementation
 Collaborative conceptual modeling (CCM)
 Multistakeholder cross-disciplinary and cross-
sectoral approach supported by system dynamics
modeling
 To produce realistic solutions to health and wellbeing
issues in the urban environment
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3.  ICSU ROAP established - September 2006
 Regional Committee for Asia and the Pacific
(“Governing Board”) identified priority areas for
ROAP
 Initially 3 areas
 Hazards and disasters
 Ecosystems
 Sustainable energy
 Health and wellbeing in the changing urban
environment added as a priority in 2008
Background
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4. At ICSU
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 Discussions on a programme on
health and wellbeing commenced
in 2006
 Scoping Group formed in 2007
 Science Planning Group started
work in 2008
 Report completed in 2010
 General Assembly 2011 approved
programme and proposal to
establish IPO on UHW

5. At ICSU ROAP
 Regional Science Planning Group formed in 2010
 3 meetings - Kuala Lumpur (2) and Xiamen (1)
 On-line consultations at every stage
 Plan launched in June 2011 (22nd Pacific Science Congress)
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6. • ROAP Plan developed out of the
ICSU plan
• An adaptation of the global plan
to Asia-Pacific Region
• A step in the implementation of
the ICSU Plan
• Strong focus and inter-relations
maintained – it’s one and the
same programme!
Relations with the ICSU global plan
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7. 7
• Income: low, high, emerging
• Population density: low to some of the
highest
• Cultural: ancient to modern
• Governance: monarchy, democracy,
socialist etc
• Environmentally fragile
regions: e.g. pacific
islands
• Human development
indicators: lowest to
highest
• Health: life style diseases,
infectious diseases,
injuries
Asia-Pacific planning context

8. 8
Strengths
 Ethnic diversity
 Resilience
 Many surviving local health
practices (Ayurveda, Chinese,
Vaastu, Fengshui)
 Strong family values and social
safety nets
 High aspirations
 Skilled manpower in many fields
 Young population

9. • Rapid urbanization
• >50% urban population
• Mostly young people
• Has triple burden of
• infectious diseases
• emerging life style diseases
• injuries from accidents

10. Features of the UHW programme
• Recognises that urban health issues are complex,
and require multi-disciplinary approaches
• Promotes research into urban health and wellbeing
where researchers address multi-sectoral issues
and involve a wide range of stakeholders
• Adopts a system dynamics approach
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11. Beyond silos….taking a systems approach
Understanding of multiple determinants of health and
wellbeing
Commitment to
urban growth limits
Commitment to effective
public transport
Urban health
and wellbeing
Opportunities for
walking and cycling
Air quality
Quality of
housing
Commitment to
sustainable urban
development
Population
size
Understanding of
environmental determinents
of health and wellbeing
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12. Still more variables: feed back loops
of drivers/causes
Commitment to
urban growth limits
Commitment to effective
public transport
Viability of peri-
urban agriculture
Land values
Amount of locally
produced food
Area of peri-urban
agricultural land
Population
density
Urban health
and wellbeing
Opportunities for
walking and cycling
Air quality
Quality of
housing
Commitment to
sustainable urban
development
Adherence to
traditional diets
Population
size
Level of concern about
health and wellbeing
Impact of land-use
policies and planning
Understanding of
environmental determinents
of health and wellbeing
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13. Recommended implementation strategy
 Identify institutions keen on using systems approach in
work on urban health and wellbeing;
 Encourage institutions to engage in building capacity
 Encourage institutions to propose and undertake pilot
projects;
 Bring project team into contact with potential funding
agencies to support the research
 Use the exemplar pilot studies as base for outreach to
get city administrators and governors to support and use
the systems approach for better evidence-based decision
making.
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14. Implementation of the science plan –
began 2012
1. Capacity building
 particular attention - utility of the systems approach to a
complex problem
2. Development of exemplar research projects
 centered on 6 cities (Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Pune,
Xiamen, Taipei)
 Examples of use of systems approach to deliver better
outcomes
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15. Implementation Step-1
 Pre-scoping Workshop, Hyderabad, 28 – 29 June
2012.
 Multidisciplinary, multi stakeholder workshop
 Identified needs and priorities (nutrition and health,
waste management, informal settlements, urban
transport; vector-borne disease / communicable
diseases added in 2nd workshop)
 Explored potential research teams with merit and
output-oriented focus
 Discussed possibilities for research funding and
support
 Developed call for pre-proposals
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16. Implementation Step-2
 Scoping Workshop Bangkok, 28 – 29 August 2012
 Reviewed concept proposals received (6/8 accepted
for development to full proposal)
 Achieved
 clarification of research aims of projects,
 identification of training needs in systems approaches,
 identification of complementary activities required for
successful management of pilot projects
 agreement of selected projects
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17. ,,,contd
 Agreed design features (August 2012):
 Used systems thinking via the CCM approach
 Recognise that urban-health problems are multi-
sectoral, and solving them require multi- disciplinary
approaches, and
 Projects takes into account the interests of a wide
range of stakeholders
 Regional Steering Committee formed
 Chair Prof Javed Iqbal
 Members Profs Soottiporn Chittmittrapap, Tony Capon, C.P.
Ramachandran, Katrina Proust, Nordin Hasan (ex officio)
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18. Implementation Step-3
 Systems Workshop, Kuala Lumpur January 2013
 Leaders of selected projects with advanced copies of
projects proposals
 Introduction to dynamic modelling and collaborative
conceptual modelling (CCM) methodologies
 Assistance to finalise proposals for submission to
funding bodies on-going
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19. Final remarks
 All ICSU regional offices have urban health as a
priority area of work
 Approach adopted by Asia-Pacific can be shared as
a template to guide implementation in other regions
(Africa; Latin America and the Caribbean)
 Approach fits very well as a tool for planning
multidisciplinary integrated research, the core
concept underlying new 10-year global platform for
research on global sustainability Future Earth
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20. Thank you! Planning Group members et al.
Members
 Tony Capon, Australia
 Yong Guan Zhu, China
 Phillipa Howden
Chapman, New Zealand
 Reiko Kishi, Japan
 Jaime Montoya ,
Phillipines
 Indira Nath, India, Chair
 Katrina Proust , Australia
 Nordin Hasan (Ex officio)
Method Specialist
 Barry Newell, Australia
ICSU ROAP
 BHJ Mckellar, Chair
RCAP Australia
 Nor Zaneedarwaty
Norman, Malaysia
 Hizam Jaafar, Malaysia
 Sharizad Dahlan
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21. Merci beaucoup !
Cảm ơn bạn rất nhiều
Dynamiques urbaines et enjeux sanitaires
Paris, September 2013
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