World Diabetes Day, which acknowledges the challenges faced by millions of people living with diabetes around the world, is an important day for all engaged in our network.
To mark the occasion, we are pleased to welcome six new cities to the network. Today, Strasbourg will become the first French city to join the Cities for Better Health, and tomorrow, on World Diabetes Day, we will welcome Bogotá in Colombia, and Bologna, Turin, Bari and Genoa in Italy. To learn more about the launches, have a look at our other articles on our website.
We also take this moment to celebrate the latest activities that have been driven by our team in headquarters. With this in mind, let’s share a few words about the launch of the new website, what it has to offer, and more.
To say this year has been an unusual one would be an understatement. COVID-19 has dramatically changed the way we communicate, the way we engage with one another, and the way we work. While it may not be the form of interaction which we are comfortable with, virtual meetings and digital tools have allowed us to maintain some degree of normalcy. This has pushed us, like many others, to embrace a more digital approach. The result? This first step, among many more to come: taking the fast lane to delivering a refreshed Cities for Better Health website.
This launch is also an opportunity for us to celebrate six successful years of the Cities for Better Health programme, the more than 30 partner cities in our global network, and the incredible initiatives that have been established throughout the network, on all continents, to halt the rise of urban diabetes.
On the website, you can find details about all of the partner cities in the ‘network’ section, news about the different initiatives being rolled out around the world, and a ‘knowledge hub’ that features publications, podcasts, and reports. And last but not least, we are pleased to finally announce the upcoming release, in the last week of November, of the Urban Diabetes Action Framework.
This framework has been a year in the making, and we are proud and excited to be putting it out there and sharing it with you. The purpose of the framework, which includes a six-step guide, a resource toolkit and a best practise case catalogue, is to accelerate the development of impactful and sustainable interventions to halt urban diabetes and obesity.
With the release of this first version, the framework will be ready for pilot-testing in an open-source fashion. Individuals and organisations with an interest will be invited to test it and provide feedback so we can collaboratively improve it. We hope that you will help us spread the word and share this open invitation with your partners.
Stay tuned for more information on this!
