Webinar: An Intersectional and Gendered Approach to Health and Wellbeing in Informal Settlements

Following on from the rich discussion at the ‘Actors and alliances to transform health and wellbeing in cities’ satellite session at the Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Bogota, the ARISE and CHORUS consortia hosted a joint webinar to discuss the importance of employing an intersectional and gendered lens when looking at health and wellbeing in informal settlements.

Based on our research in informal settlements across Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, CHORUS and ARISE researchers took attendees through some of the issues of structural violence and health seeking behaviours, using an intersectional lense, and discussed the frameworks that are used to underpin this work. This was followed by an insightful discussion panel discussion that dug deeper into the implementation of the frameworks in the different settings across both projects. The webinar was well attended with valuable contributions from participants through the online questions and answers.

The webinar was chaired by Helen Elsey, Associate Professor of Global Public Health at the University of York, who works on both ARISE and CHORUS. Speakers included:

• Abriti Arjyal (HERD International, Nepal)
• Bintu Mansaray (COMAHS, Sierra Leone)
• Chinyere Mbachu (University of Nigeria)
• Ivy Chumo (APHRC, Kenya)
• Lauren Wallace (University of Ghana)
• Partho Mukherjee (The George Institute India)
• Adrita Rahman (BRAC University JPG School of Public Health, Bangladesh)
• Sushama Kanan (ARK Foundation, Bangladesh)

As summarised by Chair Helen Elsey, the webinar made clear just how valuable this kind of analysis can be in unearthing and understanding the inequities that are being seen in urban contexts, particularly in informal settlements. She highlighted how as gender and social norms continue to transform in these settings, there is room for optimism and progress on these issues and insights like the ones shared at the webinar can really help us move towards great urban equity.

Watch the full webinar here, and read the webinar report from ARISE.

Photo Credit: ARISE Consortium