Up to now there had been a significant research gap in the understanding of social and environmental determinants of health in informal settlements in Sierra Leone. It is in this context that SLURC has undertaken a two year research study in partnership with Future Health Systems (FHS), investigating how living conditions in four of Freetown’s informal settlements relate to the health concerns of their communities. The findings and recommendations are now available, following a launch event in Freetown in January 2019.
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The poor health of those living in informal settlements across Freetown is a direct consequence of their living conditions, but often in locally specific ways. This is further exacerbated by unequal access to healthcare, meaning such communities face a double burden on their health due to the environmental conditions in which they live. This blog post highlights some of the findings of a research study, led by SLURC in collaboration with Future Health Systems, seeking to explore relationships between living conditions in informal settlements and common health problems, and to explore whether the socioeconomic backgrounds of people living in informal settlements affect their access to health care services.
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Projections about urbanization are staggering: 55% of the world’s population already live in urban areas, and by 2050 this is predicted to rise to 68% with almost 90% of the growth happening in Asia and Africa. The implications for health are huge, as is the learning agenda for health systems research.
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On 29th November 2017, Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) held a one day workshop to highlight some of the challenges, threats and drivers of health risks in urban Sierra Leone. The workshop brought together stakeholders drawn from central government ministries and agencies, the Freetown City Council, health NGOs, CBOs and community federations to discuss pertinent issues from the on-going scoping study report and to identifying what needs to be prioritized for SLURC’s Future Health Systems (FHS) research agenda on urban health.
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