ICS Estudos e Relatórios Nº1 / 2019

ICS E S T U D O S e R E L A T Ó R I O S 2019 Purpose The meeting aimed at exchanging knowledge and formulating recommendations on how to link the knowledge we have to the actions needed for improving health and wellbeing in cities under climate change. Experts discussed examples and opportunities for implementing a systems approach to urban health and wellbeing under climate change. The meeting followed up on the call for action drafted at the Xiamen Urban Health KAN meeting in December 2017 (Ebikeme et al., 2019). Experts identified the problem, agreed on a conceptual approach and formulated recommendations for urban policymakers and academia on how to not only build a science for cities ( Bai, 2018 , Acuto et al., 2018 ) but how and with whom to collaborate to implement knowledge for action for urban health and wellbeing , in particular under climate change. A systems approach aims at transcending the realm of science to policy and practice. Key elements of the meeting What are the significant health risks and challenges to urban sustainability? Despite generally improving health conditions in cities and globally, health risks and inequality are on the rise (OECD, 2018). Improving health conditions and increasing risks and inequality are systemic. We hypothesize that health risks and disparities emerge from failures to manage complex, systemic, and global challenges, particularly under climate change dynamics. What are the underlying reasons for urban health risks to appear and what are the obstacles to act on the knowledge we have? Do we have insufficient data and knowledge, or do we lack the capacity to connect knowledge to action and learn collectively by implementing systems governance for urban health under climate change? What is integrated knowledge management for urban decision-making for health and well-being, and what is the "Urban Health Model" - does it fill a science- policy gap? Another theme that guided the deliberations of the expert meeting was on institutional innovation. What are the bottlenecks and barriers for institutional innovation towards better complexity management for improving urban health and wellbeing? How are global policies for climate change, urban development, and the environment, integrated into urban decision-making with response mechanisms for local particularities? The experts presented examples for integrated decision and resilience management for