Do government and civil society workers think urban health is important in the Lagos metropolis?
What is it about?
We talked to government workers and civil society in Lagos to understand whether, and how, the Sustainable Development Goals and Social Determinants of Health feature in their work.
Why is it important?
We have a problem: Given the centrality of governance to urban health and wellbeing, the World Health Organization has recommended that urban decision makers ‘ground’ development using a health lens. The intentions being firstly to embed values that stem from ensuring the health and wellbeing of all and secondly to create cross-sectoral networks to improve health especially for the marginalized. However, despite the exaggerated inequities and high burden of diseases in urban centres across Africa; approaches using urban health equity and environmental justice are not reflected strongly in practice.