Healthy Cities and Communities Playbook

The Healthy Cities and Communities Playbook argues that city governments cannot improve urban health alone and must leverage partnerships with business, civil society, and academia. It introduces a holistic health framework consisting of eight dimensions—nutrition, sanitation, physical activity, rest, emotional resilience, spirituality, environmental/social well-being, and occupational/financial well-being—to assess city needs. The guide details three 'City Pathways' (Leading, Progressing, and Enterprising) based on a city's level of government prioritization and partnership capability, and provides a Stakeholders' Toolkit to define the specific roles of different partners in driving health interventions.

• The playbook defines holistic health and well-being through eight interrelated dimensions: nutrition, sanitation, physical activity, rest, emotional resilience, spirituality, environmental and social well-being, and occupational and financial well-being.
• Successful urban health interventions require multi-actor partnerships because city governments lack the capacity to solve these challenges alone; essential partners include business, government, non-profits, and academia.
• The document identifies three distinct 'City Pathways' for healthy living based on a city's 'state of readiness,' which is determined by its level of government prioritization of preventative health and its partnership capability.
• Leading Cities (Pathway 1) are characterized by high government investment in preventative health and the ability to manage complex, large-scale partnerships, often benefiting from a more manageable city scale.
• Progressing Cities (Pathway 2) show growing government commitment and have sufficient private resources to fill gaps, but typically focus on a limited number of health dimensions at a community level.
• Enterprising Cities (Pathway 3), often very large cities in developing regions, rely heavily on private organizations to lead partnerships due to constrained government resources and competing priorities.
• Pilot projects in Jersey City, Austin, and Mumbai demonstrated the practical application of the framework, including vertical farming for food insecurity in Jersey City, early years health interventions in Austin, and scalable WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) business models in Mumbai.

APA

World Economic Forum (2021). Healthy Cities and Communities Playbook. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEE_Healthy_Cities_Communities_Playbook_2021.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Healthy Cities and Communities Playbook. 2021. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEE_Healthy_Cities_Communities_Playbook_2021.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Healthy Cities and Communities Playbook |date=June 2021 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEE_Healthy_Cities_Communities_Playbook_2021.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2021healthy, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Healthy Cities and Communities Playbook}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEE_Healthy_Cities_Communities_Playbook_2021.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }