USA Africa Dialogue Series - Overcoming Disparity - Women's health damaged by increased city living

Overcoming Disparity - Women's health damaged by increased city living

Urban poverty has become 'highly feminised', finds new WHO and UN-
HABITAT report, with poor women facing violence and costly healthcare

Womens News Network part of the Guardian Development Network [http://
www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/series/guardian-development-network"
title="Guardian Development Network]
Tuesday November 23 2010
guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2010/nov/23/un-report-urban-women-health

Today's urban cities are suffering from a dramatic rise in a
disproportionate health crisis coming from its poorest citizens, finds
WHO (World Health Organisation)/UN-HABITAT report, Hidden Cities ?
Unmasking and Overcoming Health Inequities in Urban Settings [http://
www.hiddencities.org/report.html" title="Hidden Cities ? Unmasking and
Overcoming Health Inequities in Urban Settings]. Women suffering under
poverty are especially sensitive to impacts of urbanisation as
statistics show women in densely populated areas have a 1.5 times
higher rate of HIV/Aids than men. Women in cities also face higher
dangers of contracting Aids, a figure almost twice as high as their
rural sisters.

On the edge of the global economic shakedown, as numerous cities and
urban areas suffer from rising population, women who suffer from
poverty experience greater encounters with overcrowded substandard
housing, infectious diseases, food and water safety issues, inadequate
sanitation and increasing solid waste disposal problems.

"In 2010, more than half (the world's population) live in cities, and
by 2050, 7 out of every 10 people will live in urban areas," outlines
the new report. "Most of this explosive growth is occurring in
developing countries, where municipalities and other government
authorities are often overwhelmed by the rapid population boom."

With the transfer of both men and women from rural to urban regions
steadily increasing at a rate of 60 million per year, globalisation is
reaching a tight squeeze creating a real possibility that massive
problems in overcrowding will overshadow our next century. Urban city
dwellers will most assuredly face failures with services and
infrastructure creating dire consequences that may outlive
generations.

For the very first time in history, a majority of the world's
populations are living in cities. And this figure is rising.
Ultimately, the problems of urbanisation will affect the life and
health of rich and poor alike, but the poorest populations will suffer
much more from inequities.

Developing nations, spurred by increasing problems of climate change,
are also growing the world's largest slums, as the rural poor break
with generations of steady work in agricultural endeavors to move to
cities under mythological promises of better employment.

"Urban poverty has become highly feminised," says the new WHO/UN-
HABITAT report. Women, who have worked in farming agri-industries,
find that upon their arrival to urban areas they are often quickly and
sharply excluded from jobs, denied training programs and placed in
situations that bring ongoing and demeaning exclusions.

While cities offer rural women new experiences and opportunities to
create larger support networks, they also face heightened struggles
toward empowerment. With urban environments come increased dangers of
violence to women due to domestic and economic struggles at home. Rape
too is an ominous urban threat.

"In many cities, the urban poor face challenges in accessing health
services due to their inability to pay out-of-pocket expenses for
services," says the 2010 report on urban health inequities from WHO/UN-
HABITAT. "This is in contrast to rural settings, where the main access
issue facing residents is that health facilities are far from their
homes and communities."

In Bangladesh, surprisingly the number of women who have diabetes
increases as the nation becomes more developed and more urbanised as
wealthier women, 45yrs and older, outnumber poor women who have the
disease. But care, for those with less money who do suffer from
diabetes, is markedly unequal.

"Many urban dwellers at some point will face a dire choice: either to
go without essential treatment, or to seek treatment and go into
poverty," continues the WHO/UN-HABITAT report.

Health equity, for urban and non urban women, is an issue that relates
across the board stating that all woman must have fair and equal
access to health management and programs.

"Opportunities to put health at the heart of the urban policy agenda
exists, and it is time for all sectors to work together toward
innovative and effective solutions that mitigate health risks and
increase health benefits," says Margaret Chan, director of WHO.

"Of the many risks to health that are linked to rapid urbanization,
none is more compelling than urban poverty," adds Inga Bj?rk-Klevby,
assistant secretary general of the UN and officer in charge of UN-
HABITAT.

"These unfair health gaps are growing in spite of unprecedented global
wealth, knowledge and health awareness," continues the UN assistant
secretary general.

guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010

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