Global Parliament of Mayors 2018

In 2018, the Center for Global Health Science and Security worked to support the creation of an inter-city alliance centered around pandemic preparedness that can encourage the sharing of experiences and best practices.

The Center wrote a statement (supplemented with statements by Chatham House, Resolve to Save Lives, the World Economic Forum, and the World Health Organization) for the 2018 GPM Annual Summit that contributed to the adoption of resolutions in the Bristol Declaration, where the mayors of the GPM committed to improving pandemic preparedness at local, national, and international levels.

More specifically, the mayors committed to:
– Prioritizing pandemic preparedness as a key component of urban planning;
– Collaborating with researchers and consultants to generate valid data to implement practical initiatives to improve urban health planning and pandemic preparedness; and
– Developing an intra-city mechanism to efficiently share information and experiences to facilitate emergency response.

They called on national governments to:
– Stimulate strong collaboration with mayors to develop health-related policy through communication, stakeholder consultation and financing; and
– Support research to estimate the costs of pandemic preparedness in cities, acknowledging the economic and political importance of resilient urban environments.

And called on international institutions to:
– Advocate for financial and technical support to strengthen international strategic partnerships and one common global voice on urban health;
– Collaborate with city leaders before, during and after pandemics; and
– Include city leaders in international frameworks of urban health.