Rapid Urbanization and the Challenge of Social Justice: The Case of Latin America

Rapid urbanization, which is not coupled with equally rapid growth of institutions and guarantees of social justice, undermines the well-being and health of citizens. This is seen very clearly in Latin America, where urbanized growth has been particularly rapid. Between 1970 and 2000, the region's urban population grew by 240% and today Latin America has one of the highest urbanization levels in the world. Approximately 77% of the region's population lives in cities and projections show that the figure will rise to 81% by 2030. Although living in urban settings has historically been recognized as a favorable health determinant, rapid urban growth has severe implications for public health, when other key social institutions are less well developed. Evidence demonstrates that, as the number of people living in urban areas rises so does social injustice. Member States in the Americas have made a collective effort towards addressing social injustice in urban health and these efforts were consolidated in September of 2010, when a Plan of Action and recommendations for countries in the Americas were approved by the PAHO's Directing Council. This put urban health and social justice firmly on the regional political agenda and strengthened technical cooperation in areas such as transportation, healthy municipalities and governance, all urban health priorities identified by Member States. The objective of this presentation is to share the recommendations made by the Ministers of Health in Latin America, and to outline a path for developing and implementing a sound framework for social justice in urban health.