The poor and their health and well-being in Nigerian cities

Geoffrey I. Nwaka, Abia State University

Poverty and slum conditions pose a serious public health threat to Nigeria’s rapidly growing urban population. In vast areas of these cities the poor state of public health infrastructure leads to the spread of water-borne and other communicable disease. Many of the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved as the pattern of government spending on the health sector remains inequitable in favor the well-off in society. The poor have little or no social protection, and suffer disproportionately from crime, violence and climate change. The paper considers how poverty and discrimination can be addressed in order to reduce worsening disparities in access to health care. It stresses the need for appropriate and well targeted urban health and other interventions by state and local authorities, the international development community, private sector and civil society organizations, and the urban poor themselves in a collaborative effort to build safer, healthier and more equitable cities.