Slum Upgrading and Health Equity.

Area of Science:

• Urban planning
• Public health
• Environmental science

Background:

• Informal settlements house a significant global population, facing environmental health risks.
• Slum upgrading aims to improve living conditions, including housing, infrastructure, and social inclusion.
• The health benefits of slum upgrading are often underestimated and under-documented.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review evaluations of informal settlement upgrading globally.
• To assess the extent to which health benefits were captured in these evaluations.
• To propose methods for better integrating health considerations into slum upgrading.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of urban slum upgrading evaluations across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
• Analysis of documented outcomes focusing on environmental and social determinants of health.
• Identification of gaps in health impact assessment within upgrading projects.

Main Results:

• Few slum upgrading evaluations explicitly captured the multifaceted health benefits.
• Upgrading processes inherently address environmental determinants of health, impacting well-being.
• There is a missed opportunity to link upgrading with improved health equity and reduced climate vulnerability.

Conclusions:

• Slum upgrading is a vital strategy for promoting health equity and achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
• Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and Health in All Policies (HiAP) frameworks can enhance health outcome capture.
• Future slum upgrading initiatives must be designed, implemented, and evaluated with explicit health objectives.