Georgetown Mayor Patricia Chase-Green and Town Clerk Royston King are currently in Shanghai, China attending a global health conference organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the People’s Republic of China.
The conference, titled ‘Health Promotions in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),’ is being held at the Shanghai International Conference Centre, where it began on Monday. It runs until tomorrow.
According to the WHO website, the goal of the conference is to highlight the critical links between promoting health and the 2030 United Nations agenda for Sustainable Development.
A press release from the city council said invitations were extended to the Mayor and Town Clerk by the Chinese Government.
It said that a special session was held for mayors and Chase-Green made a presentation in which she noted that efforts at the greening the city are not only focused on aesthetics but also on the health of the population.
The release noted that the green open spaces are “incorporated as clean and safe spaces for families and individuals to make use of for either recreational or fitness purposes” and reported the mayor as saying that this initiative is supported by efforts to enhance solid waste management to reduce the prevalence of air and water borne sicknesses.
The release noted that the conference brings together 750 participants consisting of ministries and high-level government officials, mayors, health experts and policy makers, intergovernmental organizations and international Non-Governmental Organizations as well as academic and research institutes.
The WHO website stated that the conference is important because “Health is at the heart of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Promoting health is, therefore, central to delivering on the SDGs.”
“In highlighting how health and sustainable development are inextricably linked, this Conference will chart a new course for the next 15 years, aimed at inspiring national governments, municipal leaders and other stakeholders to grasp the great potential of promoting health across all sectors of society,” the website stated.
The conference also aims to highlight the crucial role that cities and municipal leaders, especially mayors, play in promoting health, in the context of an increasingly urbanized global population.
