The Xiamen Expert Workshop kicked off at IUE from Dec. 9th to Dec. 10th. Dr. Jinghai Li, Vice-President of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dr. Gordon McBean, President of International Council for Science (ICSU), Dr. Anthony Capon, Director of United Nations University International Institute of Global Health (UNU-IIGH), Mr. Qiang Huang, Deputy Mayor of Xiamen Municipality and Dr. Qinglin Wang, Deputy Director General of Department of International Affairs, China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Over sixty leading global researchers working in disciplines related to urban health and wellbeing were brought together to launch the International Programme Office hosted by IUE and defined the strategic and thematic priorities and the medium- and long-term outcomes, as well as activities of the programme.
The global programme entitled “Health and wellbeing in the changing urban environment: a system analysis approach” was developed by the International Council for Science (ICSU), with co-sponsorship from the InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) and the United Nations University (UNU). It aims to empower planners and policy-makers to achieve better health for billions of people living in fast-growing urban areas and help spur the development of cities where healthy choices are made easy, where urban decision-making does not lead to unintended negative consequences, and where sustainable design allows current and future generations to share equally in the great benefits of urban living.
ICSU called for a host of an office to manage this programme at the beginning of 2013. IUE submitted application materials in June and was visited by a panel of experts from ICSU afterwards. On Nov. 27th, ICSU officially announced the office will be hosted at IUE.
