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International Conference on Urban Health kicked off today at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh with the theme, ‘Urban Health for A Sustainable Future: The Post 2015 Agenda’.

The event was inaugurated by Honourble Speaker of the Parliament, Dr. Shimin Sharmin Chaudhary. She stressed that the local governance initiatives display the interest of providing urban health services at the grassroot level as the local bodies such as Union Parishad is working closely with the community representatives. She informed that one third of health services provided at the grassroot level are free of cost. Given the context of sustainable development, she highlighted the importance of looking into the urban health context comprehensively and major challenges remain to address urbanisation issues in the developing countries. Rapid urbanisation has resulted in densely populated areas and formulation of building construction laws to ensure more healthy dwelling. Along with the fitness of people, there is also need for ‘fitness of vehicles’ in order to avoid/control air pollution. There is requirement of more open space and maintenance of parks. For child-friendly urban development, there should be playing areas for children.

Secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Affairs Syed Monjurul Islam talked of mainstreaming health into global development agenda with the demarcation between urban and rural settings being blurred. He opined that there is a challenge between equity and sustainability given the complex nature of developing world. With pride, he mentioned that Bangladesh has sustained economic development over last 5 years. According to him, the vision of the government in terms of health and well being is affordable, accessible and quality treatment. “About 13000 community clinics are a prime example of urban health indicators doing well as within every 1 km range, you will find an urban health facility”, Islam added.

'Tea Talk' - delegates utilizing tea breaks, introducing each other and networking

Founder and CEO of Eminence, Md. Shamim Hayder Talukdar opined, “When health is not prioritised, we need to mobilise our resources properly. “ He added that with a civil society response is a perfect bridge to bring along government, private sector and the community together for a common cause such as sustainable development.

With these key messages, there were other plenary, breakout and special sessions on various issues such as reproductive health, communicable diseases (TB and HIV), maternal and child health, water, sanitation and hygiene and intra-urban inequities.

Jo Ivey Buford, President of New York Academy of Medicine discussed the success story of transforming New York city into an age friendly city with great support from the government and greater involvement of private sector and the people themselves.  The initiative brought in 4 major modules to ‘assess’, ‘engage’, ‘implement’ and ‘promote’ the much required change. Adaptation were made in terms of developing senior friendly streets for elders, comfortable city benches at the parks and having good lighting and comfortable city benches. Special attention was also made for elders’ comfort with ‘Senior Splash Programme’ – making available special hours for swimming for the elders as well as providing ‘personal shopper’ for the elderly to assist them in the department stores. Dr. Buford owed this success to the efficient leadership from the government officials and good response from the people and the corporate sector in this cause.

Dr. Jo Ivey Buford during her presentation

This success story could be one of the practical way-outs for designing similar tailored interventions for ensuring urban well being even in the context of developing world such as Bangladesh.

HERD at ICUH 2015

HERD team members – Hom Nath Subedi, Sudeepa Khanal, Uden Maharjan and Sudeep Uprety are participating in the conference to present a paper on policy development context in Nepal and for a poster presentation on Essential Health Care Services in an urban slum of Kathmandu. Excited being at the event, Dr. Helen Elsey, Lecturer of Public Health in University of Leeds and Public Health Specialist Registrar says, “It is really good to be here at ICUH. It is great to be with the HERD team. It really focuses on inequalities within urban areas.” There is a special session on ‘Designing Household Surveys that Capture the Health and Socio-Demographic Status and Needs of the Urban Poor’ on May 26.