Creating healthier cities starts with understanding what works
Explore research, reports and real-world examples from cities, partners and communities around the world. From healthier food environments and active living to partnership building and urban health equity, these resources share evidence-based insights and practical approaches to help make healthy choices easy and accessible for everyone.
-
Reports & Tools
Cities Changing Diabetes: A 10-year review (2014–2023)
Over a decade, Cities Changing Diabetes grew from an ambitious idea into a global movement spanning 47 cities and more than 300 partners. This review...
-
Reports & Tools
Cities Changing Diabetes: Programme review (2014–2016)
How can cities respond to one of the fastest-growing health challenges of our time? This review reflects on the early years of Cities Changing Diabetes...
-
News & Insights
2025 Partner Forum: Shaping healthier cities together
At the 2025 Partner Forum in Copenhagen, Cities for Better Health partners came together to reflect, connect and explore how stronger collaboration can turn...
-
Case study
Bogotá: A bus stop becomes a gateway to healthier eating
Healthy eating often depends on what is within reach. In Bogotá's outer neighbourhood, San Luis Chapinero, the steep terrain and long commutes mean fresh...
-
News & Insights
Active Children Coalition and playbook launched at MOVE Congress
A new global coalition and a practical cycling playbook took centre stage at MOVE Congress 2025, as Cities for Better Health joined partners from across...
-
Case study
Manchester and Leicester: Active play designed by children
The best ideas for getting children active often come from children themselves. Move For Fun worked with primary schools in Manchester and Leicester to co-cre...
-
Case study
Amsterdam healthy weight approach
Improving children’s health is a city-wide effort in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Healthy Weight Approach brought together schools, healthcare providers, neighbourhood organisations, urban planners...
-
News & Insights
Bangkok launches a citywide commitment to healthier neighbourhoods
Bangkok is the first city in Thailand to join Cities for Better Health, marking the launch of a citywide initiative to enhance health and well-being.
-
News & Insights
Bari boosts children’s health through cycling
Bari, Italy, is the latest city to initiate Cycle for Better Health, a programme from Cities for Better Health and BYCS to help underserved...
-
Case study
Buenos Aires: Bringing joy back into movement
For many children, being active starts with having fun. Move For Fun transformed neighbourhood spaces across Buenos Aires into places where children could move, play and...
-
News & Insights
Cali joins the movement for healthier cities with a bold community-led initiative
Cali becomes the third Colombian city to join the Cities for Better Health network with a new initiative sparking healthy habits and lasting change.
-
News & Insights
Campinas awarded for innovation in health promotion
Passos para uma vida melhor (Steps to a better life) has united city sectors, reached thousands of residents with chronic disease prevention and is...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Building healthier food environments in cities
From city markets to school cafeterias, the spaces around us shape what ends up on our plates. This City Health Talk explores how cities can build healthier...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Co-creating health equity with community-based interventions
Public health solutions designed without local community involvement often fail to stick. This City Health Talk explores how co-creation can help cities and communities...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Creating and sustaining coalitions for urban health
No single organisation can solve a city's health challenges alone. This City Health Talk unpacks how coalitions turn shared goals into coordinated action, drawing on...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Creating healthier urban environments for children
The environments that surround children shape their health for life. This City Health Talk brings together three perspectives on building healthier childhoods: Nesta's...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Improving health equity through freestyle sports
For some adolescents, mainstream sport does not feel accessible or relevant. Mills Club, a Copenhagen freestyle sports association, is closing that gap by using skating, scootering...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Cycling for healthier and more sustainable neighbourhoods
Bicycles are proving to be powerful tools for healthier, safer and more inclusive neighbourhoods. This City Health Talk introduces the Healthy Cycling Challenge winners...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Health equity in action
Health equity means everyone has a fair chance at a healthy life, but that chance is not equally shared. Looking beyond the buzzword and moving from concept to practice...
-
Video
City Health Talk webinar: Shaping healthy, green and thriving neighbourhoods
Three cities, three winning ideas. In April 2024, Cities for Better Health and C40 Cities launched the Healthy Cities Challenge to help turn community-led ideas...
-
News & Insights
Copenhagen families earn rewards for being outdoors
What if a walk in the park, a family picnic or a game of tag at the playground could earn you more than...
-
News & Insights
Co-creating healthier futures in Mississauga
In Mississauga, community voices shape new priorities for healthier schools and neighbourhoods.
-
Video
Coalitions in action: Lessons from Johannesburg and Mississauga
Forming a coalition is only the beginning – the real challenge is turning partnerships into coordinated action. In this video, partners from the Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative...
-
Video
Cross-sector collaboration and local innovation in Campinas
In Campinas, Brazil, health does not start at the clinic. It starts in parks, at the dinner table and on the walk to school. Passos, part of the Childhood Obesity...
-
Video
COPI in Johannesburg
In Johannesburg, South Africa, access to healthy food and physical activity is shaped by everyday realities – what is available, what is affordable and what is...
-
Video
COPI in Mississauga
Small, community-led changes are helping create healthier places for children in Mississauga, Canada. Growing Healthy Places, part of the Childhood Obesity...
-
News & Insights
COPI Japan launches interventions for child health promotion
In Chiba City, just east of Tokyo, local partners are joining forces to create a healthier future for children — leveraging the expertise of the city government, Chiba University...
-
News & Insights
COPI kicks off in Mississauga
Cities for Better Health Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (COPI) is launching in Canada with Growing Healthy Places: Mississauga. The ambitious three-year project will engage..
-
News & Insights
COPI Madrid scales the 'Coles con ALAS' initiative to improve child health
Local actors unite to support healthier futures for children in Madrid's disadvantaged communities under 'Coles con ALAS-COPI'
-
Reports & Tools
Creating and sustaining coalitions for urban health
Lasting change rarely happens through a single organisation. Lessons from the Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (COPI) highlight practical approaches to building and sustaining multi-sector coalitions...
-
Video
Creating healthier food environments
Every day after school, Sam walks the same route – past fast food ads, vending machines and shelves of processed snacks. This short animation shows how...
-
Reports & Tools
Cycle for Better Health programme guide and toolkit
How can cities enable more children to experience the benefits of cycling? Developed by Cities for Better Health and BYCS, this practical guide provides a...
-
Reports & Tools
Cycling for healthier and more inclusive communities
For many people, cycling is more than a way to get from one place to another. It can foster independence, build confidence, strengthen social connections, and...
-
Video
Designing coalitions for urban health that last
Healthy cities are built through collaboration. Yet bringing partners together is only the beginning. The real challenge is building coalitions that last. This short animation...
-
News & Insights
Empowering girls through football
A new initiative is redefining physical activity for girls in São Paulo, using football as a powerful tool for health, empowerment and equity.
-
Case study
Lisbon: Exploring the neighbourhood foodscape
What is the relationship between the food we eat and the places where we live? This study explores the foodscape of Ajuda, Lisbon, examining how...
-
Case study
Gladsaxe: A family-centred approach to healthier childhoods
Supporting children’s health often starts with supporting families. For more than a decade, Gladsaxe Municipality has worked alongside families to build healthier habits...
-
Video
Healthy Cities Challenge winner: Buenos Aires, Argentina
In Vicente López, the Sabe la Tierra market is being reimagined as a hub for healthier food access. Asociación Sustentar, a winner of the Healthy Cities...
-
Case study
Cuenca: Healthier markets start with healthier vendors
A market thrives because on account of the people behind every stall. At Cuenca’s 12 de Abril market, vendors spend long days surround...
-
Video
Healthy Cities Challenge winner: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, unsafe sidewalks and limited green space affect how residents move through daily life. The Federal University of Rio de...
-
Video
Healthy Cities Challenge winner: Nairobi, Kenya
Dunga Road in Nairobi, Kenya, is a busy corridor where schoolchildren, vendors and commuters gather daily. Yet cars dominate the street, meaning that it is built...
-
Video
Healthy Cycling Challenge winner: Pedalando Juntas, Brazil
For many women in São Paulo's Jardim Ibirapuera and Jardim Panorama communities, accessing the city's green spaces has long felt out of reach. Pedalando Juntas...
-
News & Insights
Six grassroots cycling projects shortlisted in global innovation challenge
From Brazil to Nepal, six ambitious initiatives are rethinking the bicycle as more than just transport. These finalists in the Healthy Cycling...
-
Video
Healthy Cycling Challenge winner: Pedal Paathshala, Nepal
Once known as the city of bicycles, Bharatpur has seen its cycling culture fade as motorised transport has become the norm. Pedal Paathshala, Nepal's first bicycle...
-
Video
Healthy Cycling Challenge winner: Pedalea Seguro, Peru
Lima's flat terrain and mild climate make it one of the world's most natural cities for cycling, but its streets were never built for this. Pedalea Seguro...
-
News & Insights
Meet the Healthy Cycling Challenge winners
Across city streets and village paths, three grassroots projects are transforming cycling into a powerful movement for health, equity and inclusion.
-
News & Insights
Meet the winners of the Healthy Food Challenge
On 14 October, Novo Nordisk and EAT announced the winners of ‘The Healthy Food Challenge,’ a platform that called for innovative solutions to...
-
Video
Healthy Foodscapes in Lisbon
What can a neighbourhood tell us about the way people eat? This video follows foodscape research in Lisbon, Portugal, exploring how food outlets, public spaces...
-
Reports & Tools
Healthy urban food environments for children in Latin America
What does it take to create healthier food environments for children in Latin American cities? Perspectives from city leaders, practitioners and international organisations highlight the...
-
News & Insights
How a new pop-up space is reimagining health and resilience in Kyiv
Kyiv’s Kontraktova Square has seen centuries of trade and community life, but on 5 July 2025, it became something new: a pop-up urban space dedicated...
-
Case study
Copenhagen: Improving social inclusion through freestyle sports
Not every child feels at home with traditional organised sports. In Copenhagen, Mills Skate Club creates opportunities for children and young people to be active...
-
News & Insights
Introducing Cycle for Better Health
Cities for Better Health has teamed up with BYCS, an NGO with global expertise in implementing and expanding access to cycling projects, to give children in...
-
News & Insights
Johannesburg anchors COPI in local health campaign
In Johannesburg, the Cities for Better Health Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (COPI) has a new name – one that signals growing local ownership and...
-
News & Insights
Johannesburg unites to act on childhood obesity
Action is underway for the Childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (COPI) in Johannesburg, South Africa. Part of the Cities for Better Health programme, the initiative targets disadvantaged...
-
News & Insights
La Victoria puts child health centre stage
In one of Lima’s most densely populated districts, children’s food environments are often dominated by unhealthy options, from school cafeterias to street...
-
News & Insights
Logan comes together to launch FEEL GOOD FUTURES
Over the next three years, Logan Together will implement the FEEL GOOD FUTURES Logan initiative in collaboration with the Logan community to support community health...
-
Case study
Bogotá: Mapping the neighbourhood foodscape
Healthy food choices are shaped long before people decide what to eat. In Bogotá, researchers looked beyond individual behaviour to understand how neighbourhoods...
-
Video
Meet the changemakers: Turku's path to active childhoods
In Turku, children and young people can now claim a voucher to help cover their sports club fees, with more than 5,000 participants signing up within weeks...
-
Reports & Tools
Move For Fun: Enabling a healthy start in life through physical activity
Move For Fun was created to give every child the chance to experience the joy and benefits of being active. Developed through...
-
News & Insights
New research partnership strengthens global efforts to prevent childhood obesity
Cities for Better Health and the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences join forces to model long-term impact of the Childhood...
-
Reports & Tools
The Paradox of Proximity: Preventing urban loneliness
Cities are bringing people closer together than ever before. Yet for many urban residents, meaningful social connections feel increasingly out of reach...
-
Reports & Tools
Partner Forum Report 2025
Collaboration is essential for creating healthier cities, but sustaining it requires shared purpose and action. This report captures key lessons and recommendations from the 2025...
-
News & Insights
Super chefs on wheels
Across public schools in Mexico, Nutrimóvil brings a mobile kitchen directly to children, giving them the chance to prepare, taste and discover healthy food...
-
News & Insights
The Healthy Neighbourhood Explorer
C40 Cities has launched an exciting new tool to bridge the gap between urban design and public health. How does your city measure up?
-
Reports & Tools
Thriving Foodscapes interventions menu
Healthier eating habits often start with what i's available nearby. This report brings together six practical ways in which cities can reshape everyday spaces – from...
-
Reports & Tools
Thriving Foodscapes Toolkit
Understanding how a neighbourhood shapes what people eat may be the first step towards building healthier eating habits. Developed by Cities for Better Health and...
-
Case study
Tingbjerg: Food as the foundation for healthier communities
Healthy communities are built around the things people share. In Tingbjerg, conversations with residents revealed that food was a common interest that connected...
-
News & Insights
Twelve Italian cities take steps towards health equity
Across Italy, cities are reimagining streets, parks and public spaces as places to promote everyday movement and well-being. From Genova to Napoli...
-
Video
Understanding health equity
At its core, health equity means that everyone should have a fair chance to live a healthy life. Yet around the world, those chances are not equally shared. This short...
-
Reports & Tools
Saddle up to transform cities for better health and more inclusion
Cycling can help cities address some of their most pressing challenges, from physical inactivity and health inequities to social inclusion and access to opportunity...
-
Case study
Copenhagen: When healthy habits start in the kitchen
Some of the most important lessons about healthy eating happen around the kitchen table. Hello Kitchen brings children and parents together to...
-
Case study
Wroclaw: Making movement part of the school day
What if being active was woven into the school day rather than just added on? In Wroclaw, Move For Fun helped schools turn familiar games...
-
News & Insights
Year in review 2025: Building healthier urban futures together
What does it look like when cities treat health as a part of daily life rather than a distant goal? In 2025, cities and partners across the...
No results found
