Why does the city affect how I feel?

When we talk about health, the first thing that usually comes to mind is absence of illness. In other words, we believe we are healthy when we do not suffer from any disease or ailment.

Being healthy, however, encompasses many aspects other than merely not suffering from a disease. Factors such as our lifestyle, the type of relationship we build with our environment, how we learn, work, relax and have fun, are critical, because our health is often conditioned by external factors that have a direct and indirect impact on it. In that sense, the quality of our context or the environment can determine how healthy the life we lead can be.

Since cities are an overwhelming choice of living spaces for Latin Americans (more than 80% live in urban centers), the way they function (e.g. the services and air quality they offer, the ability to provide healthy food) can have a positive or negative impact on people's health.   

Though many of the historical problems of Latin American and Caribbean cities were more clearly exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are also dealing with other silent pandemics, e.g. overweight, which afflicts around 57% of the adult population in Latin America, i.e. some 300 million people.

In addition, if we add a gender distinction, we see a prevalence of obesity in women, explained for instance by a relationship between the delay in transportation systems that shortens the time to prepare and consume healthy food, which is replaced by sugary drinks or ultra-processed foods.

Fortunately, it is possible to have a positive influence on health by changing the environment in which we live. Many changes can be made in planning, design and management of cities in order to intervene in our living environment. For instance, encouraging physical activity through better public spaces or greater and better access to healthy foods, implementing bicycle lanes throughout the city to promote active mobility.

Other initiatives include creating or revamping green spaces to encourage not only physical activity but also recreation and leisure, distributing primary healthcare centers adequately to facilitate access by all, discouraging the use of private transport as an attempt to curb environmental pollution and noise levels, among many other policies.

Looking at urban policies from such perspective shows the impact the city can have in shaping people’s health. Without health, we cannot perform the activities we want. We carry history in our bodies, and thus, the planning, design and management of a healthy city is reflected in decisions made to encourage a healthier lifestyle, individually and collectively.

Faced with this need, at CAF—development bank of Latin America—we have developed a guide for healthier cities, which analyzes conceptual frameworks, recommendations and case studies for healthier living in cities based on the joint work between the urban planning and health agendas at the municipal level, following internationally available best practices.