Health and wellbeing (SDG3) in urban design and spatial planning–a retrospective roadmap towards the collective impact model

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) lay the foundations for supporting global health yet the rate of meeting the SDGs is slow and complex. In order to meet these transactional and multidisciplinary challenges a paradigm shift from operating in silos is needed, to include a more interdisciplinary approach (top down as well as bottom up approaches). This paper reports top down and bottom up approaches that were used to address health and wellbeing in a middle-eastern multi-cultural city. In this retrospective roadmap, we highlight the key pillars that appear to have assisted in progress in achieving SDG3, Good Health and Well-being. The roadmap includes the development of the key pillars: 1) a common agenda, 2) shared measurement system, 3) mutually reinforcing activities, 4) continuous communication and 5) backbone support. Highlighting condition 4, continuous communication, of the model, we discuss the creation, use and importance of a “communication tool” used for Healthy Urban Planning. This tool developed cooperatively with relevant municipality departments, national government, and multidisciplinary community shareholders, led to organizational changes and the creation of the Sustainability Department of the municipality. This retrospective roadmap appears to reflect the collective impact framework appropriate for solving complex challenges such as achieving SDGs.