On 10-11 December 2025, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy visited Bahrain where she attended the certificate handover ceremony recognizing the Southern Governorate as a ‘Healthy City’ under the WHO Healthy Cities initiative.
Southern Governorate joins Capital, Northern and Muharraq governorates, meaning all 4 of Bahrain’s governorates are now recognized under the initiative.
The Healthy Cities initiative began to be implemented in the Eastern Mediterranean Region in 1990, in response to growing urbanization and to support healthier, more sustainable environments in which people are able to live, work and thrive. A healthy city strives to create an environment that cares for the physical, mental and social well-being of its inhabitants by placing equity, inclusion and sustainable development at the centre of local policies and programmes.
As part of the evaluation, field visits were conducted to assess the 9 domains in the Eastern Mediterranean’s healthy cities criteria, community organization/mobilization for health development; intersectoral collaboration; availability of information; environmental health; health development; education and literacy; skill development and capacity building; microcredit activities and emergency preparedness and response. The domains were developed as a framework of 80 indicators to address the social determinants of health and align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In 2018, Umm Al-Hassam became the first city in Bahrain to achieve the designation. In 2021, Manama became the Region’s first Healthy Capital, followed by Healthy City designations for A’ali and Busaiteen/Al-Sayah in 2022. Commitment to the programme was further strengthened in 2023, when under the leadership of His Excellency the Minister of Interior, governorates signed letters of collaboration to scale up the initiative to a whole-of-governorate approach.
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Following evaluation missions, conducted by WHO and the Ministry of Health in 2024 and 2025, all governorates in Bahrain are now recognized, reflecting the commitment and hard work of the Government of Bahrain and the Ministry of Health.
