Promoting Good Health in Nairobi Slums

Research to support sound public policy is a key part of the Hewlett Foundation’s efforts to ensure good reproductive health in the developing world. With our support, the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, Kenya, engages African scholars in wide-ranging research on crucial population and health issues facing sub-Saharan Africa.
The Center’s objectives are threefold: to strengthen the institutional capacity to conduct research in Africa; to support researchers in developing and carrying out their work; and to disseminate research findings for use in formulating public policy.
In research conducted in the Nairobi slums in 2006, the Center learned that more than 90 percent of deaths among children and adults living in Nairobi’s slum settlements could easily be prevented or treated; nearly one in ten children dies before age one; and of the three in ten women who have severe complications during or after pregnancy, only half seek care. Center officials now are working to see that Nairobi city leaders and civil servants consider these findings in formulating policy.


