The Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Governor of Makkah, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal met today (Wednesday) with the Health Minister, Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah who handed him a certificate of accreditation from the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledging Taif as a “Global Health City.”
It is noteworthy that Taif health city is one of the first Kingdom’s health cities to join MOH’s health cities program. All public and private sectors in Taif have joined forces with the community members to achieve WHO’s standards, which are in line with the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030.
In December of last year, a delegation of WHO experts have visited Taif to conduct the final assessment, whereas the organization’s system provides for re-assessing cities, which obtained the accreditation, every three years. The concept of healthy city means that the city or village environment is at the level that serves and enhances health through coordination and joint action between all environment and health-associated sectors, in addition to concerted efforts of all community members for serving their city.
The health city program aims to promote population health and contribute to upgrading the level of service and health and environmental conditions in cities. This objective can be achieved through different aspects including raising awareness about the health and environmental issues in the context of environmental development efforts, attracting community support and participation in solving problems, preparing and implementing health and environmental activities and projects and enhancing provinces and directorates' capabilities to address health and environmental problems in cities through cooperation among all community members.