Funding: African urbanisation

13 February 2006

A new project aims to assess the health impact of rapid urbanisation in sub-Saharan developing countries.

Many African cities are growing rapidly, while their countries' economies remain in a poor state. As a result, many migrants from rural areas end up poor and living in city slums.

Dr Eliya Zulu of the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya, has, with colleagues in Kenya and the UK, been awarded a programme grant to investigate the reciprocal links between poverty and ill health, to help health officials plan the most effective strategies to improve the health of people living in slums.

The research will build on an existing demographic study of nearly 60 000 people in two Nairobi slums.