A research think tank, Community-Led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems (CHORUS), has called on African and Asian countries to urgently build resilient health systems in anticipation of a major surge in urban population.
The CHORUS Urban Health Consortium, which operates in Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal and Nigeria, said the move was necessary to address the growing challenges associated with rapid urbanisation and high disease burden across the two continents.
The call was made in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by Nigeria’s Country Lead, Prof. Obinna Onwujekwe.
Onwujekwe said research findings indicated that urban population growth in Africa and Asia could reach as high as 90 per cent within the next 20 years, placing enormous pressure on already strained health systems.
He disclosed that the consortium was partnering with the University of Ghana’s School of Public Health and the International Society for Urban Health to host a forum aimed at strengthening urban health systems.
According to him, the forum, known as the Accra Evidence-to-Policy Event, will hold from Thursday to Friday at the University of Ghana’s Legon Campus and will bring together researchers, policymakers, city officials and health managers.
He said participants would deliberate on research findings in urban health and develop strategies to support responsive policies and programmes across Africa and Asia.
The Consortium’s Co-Director, Prof. Helen Elsey, described the forum as timely, noting that urban primary healthcare systems faced systemic challenges due to uncoordinated services provided by public, private and non-governmental clinics, as well as pharmacies.
She said these challenges had contributed to poor health outcomes, particularly in maternal and child health, and in the management of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
Elsey added that poor service quality, high healthcare costs, and limited access to formal health providers had further worsened urban health challenges, leading many residents to rely on informal providers such as traditional birth attendants and drug vendors.
Another Co-Director of the consortium, Associate Prof. Bassey Ebenso, said improving urban health systems was closely tied to addressing broader social and economic challenges.
He listed these challenges to include reliable power supply, road infrastructure, water and sanitation, air quality, transportation, social conditions and cultural norms that increase health risks.
Ebenso, alongside the Consortium’s Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Irene Agyepong, stressed that addressing urban health challenges required political leaders in Africa and Asia to recognise the scale of the problem and mobilise multisectoral action at both city and national levels.