CEO Perspective

Urbanization has become a determinant for health in its own right. Cities are places where health can be produced or compromised, and city leaders have shown that they can lead the way by creating systems that promote and protect health. This was already happening before the pandemic, and city leaders have stepped up to respond to COVID-19's impact on their people.

Health is inextricably linked to the people and institutions that shape our everyday lives—from the schools our children attend, to the government departments that manage the streets we use, to the businesses that shape the advertising that surrounds us. And policy is the best tool we have to empower people by making the healthy choice the easy choice.

The strength of our world’s public health systems can be best measured by the well-being of those who are the least protected—whether because of systematic drivers of inequity like poverty or racism, or structural issues that drive lack of access to care, or some combination. COVID-19 has centered these inequities as never before, increasing ill health beyond infectious disease and driving death and disease in other areas. Vital Strategies works in cities and countries where the need is highest and where we can make the greatest impact—and we do not turn away from multilayered challenges. We specialize in creating solutions to problems at a national and global scale.