Accountability for Informal Urban Equity Hub (ARISE)

Over half the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, a figure that is expected to rise to 90% by 2050. While cities present opportunities for social and economic development, they also demonstrate the world’s most obvious income, health and wellbeing disparities and as such threaten the cross-cutting ‘leave no-one behind agenda’. One in three urban dwellers today live in precarious, marginalized areas, including informal settlements in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Increased pressure on public services by the burgeoning population will mean that many of those living on the fringes, such as the urban poor, will find it harder and more expensive to access them.

As partners in the UKRI GCRF Accountability for Informal Urban Equity Hub (ARISE), this study builds on close to two decades of research experience in urban informal settlements in Africa, to help improve the health and wellbeing of people living in informal settlements in Nairobi (Kenya). Nairobi, one of the fastest growing cities in Africa, is home to over 4 million people with a significant number residing in slums and informal settlements. We seek to catalyze a step change in approaches to improving accountability and promoting the wellbeing and health and of marginalized people living in poverty in informal urban settlements of Nairobi (Kenya).  We will bring residents of informal settlements together with people leading government bodies and other relevant organizations to develop ways to address their priorities and help focus attention on these issues for policymakers.

This project is part of a Global Research consortium, led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) that brings together ten partners from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines who will work collaboratively to address key development hurdles including ill-health, inequity, and insecurity in four countries: Kenya, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, and India.

Other partners in the ARISE consortium include Liverpool VCT Health (Kenya); Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC),  and College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, also in Sierra Leone; the George Institute and Slum and Shack Dwellers’ International, both in India; the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Bangladesh; as well as the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow, along with input from Pamoja Communications in the UK.