WHO links poor health to urban poverty
By George Murumba
22nd Nov 2010
A new United Nations report shows for the first time how poor health is linked to poverty in cities.
The report, titled “Hidden Cities: unmasking and overcoming health inequities in urban settings”, was launched on 17th November in Kobe, Japan where leaders from various governments, academia, media and non-governmental organizations had been meeting to examine how to improve the health of city dwellers.
Published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), the report also urges policymakers to identify those that need the most help and target measures to improve their well-being.
Its findings are based on a new analysis that looks beyond city averages or beyond the usual information from cities and towns to identify hidden pockets of ill-health and social deprivation.
“…Averages hide large pockets of disadvantage and poor health, concealing the reality of people’s lives”, said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. She added that the new analysis uncovers gaps in health and healthcare access across urban populations and “…shows city leaders where their efforts should focus”.
The report reveals inequities by looking at subgroups of city dwellers according to their socioeconomic status, neighbourhood or other population characteristics.
“…All too often policymakers and planners fail to understand that with the urbanization of poverty, many slum dwellers suffer from an additional urban penalty: they have a higher rate of child mortality, die younger and suffer from more diseases than their more affluent neighbours”, said Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT.
To better understand the causes of poor health, the report focuses on several factors including population dynamics, urban governance, the natural and built environment, the social and economic environment, and access to services and health emergency management.
It also says unless urgent action is taken to address urban health inequities, many countries will not achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.
The report also found that the poorest urban children are twice as likely as the richest to die before the age of five. It also shows that health inequity exists in both developing and developed countries.
For example, tuberculosis is more common in Japan than in other developed countries and the analysed data revealed that bigger cities tend to have wider gaps. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
