International Urban Health Summit 2025, Hannover (Invited Talk and Panel)
In April 2025, Dr. Suraj Bhattarai participated in the International Urban Health Summit 2025 (IUHS2025), Hannover, Germany, 9-11 April, which was organised by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW), in cooperation with the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) and the Volkswagen Foundation and in partnership with the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH). The summit which was attended by more than 350 urban health practitioners, researchers and stakeholders from more than 30 countries successfully stimulated a productive interdisciplinary discussion bridging different sectors of urban health, like urban planning, governance, architecture, green space, climate change, mobility, artificial intelligence, education, public engagement and the arts.
The following six Plenary Sessions were organized, along with topic-specific Breakout Sessions, artistic workshops and group meetings.
- Plenary 1: Urban Planning & Governance
- Plenary 2: Built Environment & Urban Health
- Planary 3: Natural Environment, Climate Change & Urban Health
- Plenary 4: Public Engagement & Urban Decision Making
- Planary 5: AI & Urban Health
- Planary 6: Education & (Urban) Health
Dr. Bhattarai gave a talk during the Plenary 4 – Breakout Session titled “Including vulnerable populations in urban decision making”, highlighting the work he did in Nepal for identifying people vulnerable to climate sensitive diseases and the social factors associated with double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases. He shared ideas and experiences of involving vulnerable populations in research design and implementation, health care management, service delivery, public health campaigns and climate health adaptation actions.
“Vulnerable populations in cities—including disadvantaged urban groups, marginalized groups, women, children, the elderly, and those affected by disease—face significant barriers in accessing essential services, including healthcare and government benefits, especially during disasters, climate change and pandemics.”
Other speakers of the session included Prof. David Napier, a social scientist from University College London, UK and Prof. Saroj Jayasinghe from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, moderated the session.
Overall, over 80 speakers shared their insights on various facets of urban health. The Summit was addressed by Belit Onay – the Lord Mayor of the City of Hanover; Dr. Ellen Haußdörfer – the State Secretary for Health and Care, City of Berlin; Georg Schütte – CEO of Volkswagen Stiftung; Prof. Christoph Markschies – President BBAW; Professor Detlev Ganten – Member of the BBAW and Founder of the Virchow Foundation; Dr. Tedros – Director General of World Health Organization; Giselle Sebag – Executive Director of ISUH; Dr. Peggy Hamburg – Co-President of IAP; Prof. Jo Boufford – Chair of IAP Urban Health Working Group, among many other experts.
Summit information and reports:
