WHO/PAHO renew Collaboration Centre designation through 2030

The Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has redesignated UB's Center on Health in Housing as a Collaborating Centre for Research on Healthy Settings through 2030, extending a partnership that has helped shape global housing and health policy for nearly four decades.

The redesignation recognizes UB's continued role as a trusted scientific partner to PAHO/WHO as cities grow rapidly, housing insecurity rises and the built environment gains recognition as a key driver of health equity.

The center is co-directed by Lina Mu, who also serves as director of the Office of Global Health Initiatives in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, and Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah, chair of and associate professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture and Planning. Jennifer Foster, coordinator in the Office of Global Health Initiatives, also supports the center's work.

UB's relationship with WHO began in 1988, when the Center on Health in Housing was first designated a Collaborating Centre. Since then, researchers from the School of Public Health and Health Professions and the School of Architecture and Planning have contributed to international guidance on housing, environmental health, water and sanitation, healthy neighborhoods and accessible home environments. 

Among those contributions are two landmark WHO publications: the 2018 WHO Housing and Health Guidelines and Taking a Strategic Approach to Urban Health: A Guide for Decision-Makers, published in 2025. Both publications translate decades of research into evidence-based recommendations for policymakers around the world.

“The center’s interdisciplinary structure — bringing together public health, architecture, planning and social science — mirrors WHO’s increasing emphasis on ‘healthy settings,’ an approach that looks beyond clinical care to the places where people live, work and age,” Mu says.

“The collaboration center positions our university at the forefront of the global stage in the field of health and housing,” Mu adds. “Through collaboration with the World Health Organization, PAHO and other international partners, we are committed to advancing research and innovation, translating research into practice and contributing meaningful solutions to improve living environments and promote health equity across communities worldwide.”

Boamah says the redesignation further strengthens UB's leadership in global health research, practice and education.

“It brings together strategic partnerships within and beyond UB to advance frameworks, tools and applied knowledge for addressing complex urban and rural health challenges shaped by housing, environmental conditions, migration, and uneven patterns of development across diverse contexts at home and abroad,” Boamah adds. “The work also provides applied and experiential learning opportunities for students in UB’s MS in International Development and Global Health program.”

WHO’s current global program of work emphasizes urban health, health equity and the social determinants of health, with housing and neighborhood conditions sitting at the center of all three. More than half the world’s population lives in cities, and there is a great need for evidence-based guidance on healthy urban living environments.

As a Collaborating Centre, UB researchers will help WHO translate global guidance into practical tools that countries and municipalities can use to improve health outcomes.

Over the next four years, the center's work will focus on four key projects, detailed below. Mu and Boamah both serve as lead investigators for Projects 1 and 2. 

One major area of work focuses on helping WHO develop and implement urban health guidance. UB faculty will provide technical input into the creation of tools and content that support local urban health planning. This includes contributing to a global online arsenal of urban health case studies and helping draft implementation protocols and manuals that cities can use to apply WHO guidance in real-world settings.

The goal is practical translation: moving from global recommendations to actionable steps for planners, public health officials and policymakers. Deliverables over the next two years include technical reports and recommendations that will shape how WHO supports urban health planning and design across member states.

A second initiative focuses on education and capacity-building. UB will assist WHO in creating training for professionals working at the intersection of public health and the built environment. This includes developing training modules and a “trainers of trainers” manual designed to help implement that expertise globally.

Through workshops, peer learning sessions and technical reviews of training materials, UB researchers will help ensure that urban health principles are understood not only by health professionals but also by architects, planners and policymakers — those who physically shape communities.

A third project directly supports completion of the WHO Housing and Health Guidelines by examining inclusive and accessible housing. UB will conduct literature reviews and original research on healthy home environments, prepare manuscripts for scientific publication, and develop technical notes to guide policy and practice related to accessible housing.

This work aligns with PAHO’s emphasis on equity and social determinants of health, recognizing that safe, accessible housing is foundational to healthy aging, disability inclusion and community well-being.

The final major project examines the relationship between housing insecurity and the development of healthy, equitable communities, particularly for socially and economically vulnerable populations such as migrants, refugees and new Americans.

UB researchers will study how unstable housing intersects with access to food systems, health services and culturally appropriate community supports. The work will result in a scientific manuscript and practical materials—briefs, presentations and summaries—that WHO can use in regional capacity-building activities across the Americas.