ICUH 2024: A Healthier Horizon: Activating Urban Health Strategies for a Climate

IPCC reports have identified that impacts of climate change will be concentrated among the most marginalised and poorest urban populations, particularly the one billion people living in informal settlements, where vulnerabilities to extreme weather events such as storms, flooding and heatwaves are already being experienced. This panel presents and discusses findings from several research consortia engaging with community led initiatives for health equity and climate resilience in informal settlements, through Community-Based Participatory Research in India, Kenya, and Sierra Leone.


Community ‘co-researchers’, professional researchers and development professionals will share experiences from ARISE consortium research, which aimed to strengthen accountability for community health equity in informal urban settlements and will share how community-led initiatives are being adapted to promote climate resilience for health. Presenters will also share initial findings from Urban SHADE, which aims to strengthen health service responsiveness to extreme weather events in informal settlements India, Kenya, and Sierra Leone.


Presentations will include a consideration of how organised communities can use participatory data collection and analysis as the basis for developing their own processes for responding to extreme weather events as well as for advocating with governance stakeholders to improve responsiveness to their priorities and vulnerabilities. Community vulnerabilities are explored from an intersectional perspective, which considers how intersecting social identities create differential risks within informal settlements. Presenters will also share experiences of working with a range of governance actors relevant to the impact of extreme weather events on health, including but not limited to health services. They will draw from work including creating physical address systems, co-producing WASH improvements, developing community-based mental health interventions, creating disaster response approaches and co-producing climate resilient housing. In this 60-minute panel, 6 presenters will make an initial presentation lasting seven minutes each, after which the audience will be encouraged to ask questions and reflect on contributions of community and governance stakeholders to promoting inclusive urban development for climate-resilient, equitable health and well-being. Dr Surekha Garimella (The George Institute, India) will chair the panel as co-I for ARISE and Co-PI for Urban SHADE.