The Poor and their Health in Nigerian Cities

Health is a major urban policy issue in Nigeria because poverty and slum conditions pose a serious public health threat to the country's rapidly expanding urban population. In vast areas of the cities inadequate housing, sanitation and waste management, and the poor state of public health infrastructure have led to the spread of water-borne and other communicable disease. The Millennium Development Goals in health, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and international development assistance are unlikely to be met.The level of preventable child and maternal deaths, HIV, etc is still high; and the pattern of government spending on the health sector remains equitable. The paper considers ways to reduce poverty, slum conditions and worsening disparities in access to health care. The central argument is that human development and welfare ought to be at the center of the concern for sustainable urbanization in Africa. We need to review discriminatory laws and practices which inhibit the access of the poor to affordable land, housing and other opportunities.. State and local authorities, the international development community, the private sector and civil society organizations should collaborate to promote well targeted health and other intervention for safer, healthier and more inclusive cities.