Advancing Dialogue on Urbanization in West Africa

The first Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Forum on Good Practices in Health was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from July 29 to July 31, 2015. The forum, organized by the West African Health Organization (WAHO), brought together nearly 300 researchers, policy makers, implementers, program managers, and donors, primarily from the 15 member states representing the ECOWAS region. With aims to encourage discussion and advocate for the adoption of approaches to health and development in the region, sessions addressed what works in reproductive health and family planning; in leadership, management and governance; in health services delivery approaches; in socio-cultural approaches and advocacy; and on the scalability and sustainability of effective practices.

The USAID-funded and MSH-led African Strategies for Health project (ASH) participated in a plenary session on sociocultural and advocacy approaches to improve health. Colin Gilmartin, Technical officer for MSH, shared a recent report on urbanization trends in the West African Abidjan to Lagos transport corridor, and its impact on the health of residents in the region.  Gilmartin presented A Corridor of Contrasts, a recent report documenting the risks and opportunities for the health of people living and working in an urbanizing West Africa. The report presents the stories of people living in the corridor, which crosses Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, and shows urbanization as one of the most important trends impacting the health of the poor in the region.

Gilmartin concluded his presentation by offering several recommendations for those in attendance:

• Given the mobility of urban populations in the region, we must continue to strengthen regional approaches for improving services for key populations, build strong referral systems, integrate services, and improve disease surveillance mechanisms. 
• We must increase support to the private health sector and reduce the financial barriers to accessing quality health care.
• Lastly, we need to be innovative! Interventions that worked in the past will not necessarily work in the future.

Download A Corridor of Contrasts: On the road from Abidjan to Lagos, urbanization offers risk and opportunity, hardship and hope.


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Colin Gilmartin (second from right, above) presents A Corridor of Contrasts at the Forum in Ouagadougou.