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P06


Urbanisation, health and policy 
Convenors:
Linda Waldman (Institute of Development Studies)
Ramila Bisht (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Start time:
11 September, 2015 at
Time zone: Europe/London
Session slots:
2

Short Abstract:

Africa's and Asia's unprecedented urban growth leads to unplanned peri-urban and informal settlements with no service delivery. This session explores equity, emic, and emotive aspects of urbanization and health, asking about health system exclusions and peri-urban experiences of health-seeking.

Long Abstract:

Unprecedented urban growth in Africa's and Asia's urban areas is occuring(UN, 2014)and making evident the limits of city planning and public service delivery. The resulting peri-urban sprawl and informal settlements are liminal spaces between the city and the hinterland; heterogenous and unplanned spaces where urban growth continues unabated yet rural dimensions remain; and unregulated spaces where neither urban nor rural policies prevail (Marshall et.al., 2009). People living here experience physical ill-being, abysmal water and sanitation facilities, overcrowding, toxic exposures, unregulated employment conditions, a lack of access to, and an inability to utilize, urban health services (Hawkins, MacGregor and Oronje, 2014).

There is increasing recognition of the health, environment and urbanisation intersections and growing academic and policy recognition of the peri-urban as critical for development (Dupont, 2007; Narain et.al, 2013), yet little anthropological research detailing health inequity in rapidly-urbanising cities. This session explores the equity, emic, and emotive aspects of urbanization and health, asking about health system exclusions. How do peri-urban residents engage in health seeking? What are the coping mechanisms for ill-health in informal settlements? What shapes women's experiences of health and how are socio-cultural norms, such as restrictions on women's movements, negotiated in relation to urban health seeking? What are residents health concerns? Does peri-urban residence reinforce health inequity? What policies and interventions enable poor urban communities to address sexual and reproductive health needs or to tackle health conditions, and with what effect?

Accepted papers:

Session 1