AUS Chancellor Dr. Björn Kjerfve attended a special ceremony held in Sharjah on Wednesday, September 30, declaring the emirate as the first WHO Healthy City of the region by the World Health Organization (WHO).

His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, Supreme Council Member, Ruler of Sharjah and President of AUS, received the WHO Healthy City Adoption Citation from Dr. Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Sharjah was selected the first Healthy City in the region earlier this year, after the emirate met a majority of the criteria set by the WHO Healthy Cities Program. Sharjah will now be a regional training center for other cities seeking WHO endorsement.

Shaikh Dr. Sultan emphasized that education is the basis for building societies and, without it, no health system can be established in any society. The healthy-city designation is part of a growing list of accomplishments for Sharjah which has set up a seed bank, established natural sanctuaries to protect endangered species and launched tourism projects that serve the biodiversity of the emirate, in addition to enacting laws to deal with environmental violations.

The WHO report presented on the occasion confirmed that Sharjah, which joined the WHO Healthy Cities Program in 2012 as part of the vision and efforts of the Ruler of Sharjah to put health at the top of the development agenda of the emirate, had more than complied with the basic WHO criteria for being selected as the first Healthy City in the region under the new criteria of the world body.

WHO lauded the emirate for taking measures to improve the healthcare system and social welfare infrastructure, while embracing responsible environment policies and practices, such as waste management and sustainable development, in line with the WHO Healthy Cities Program. It called for replicating Sharjah's successful model globally. The WHO officials praised the emergency response and crisis management center in the emirate, describing it as one of the best in the region and worth emulating by others.