Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

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Publish Date 19/07/2011
Author David Vlahov, Siddharth Raj Agarwal, Robert M. Buckley, Waleska Teixeira Caiaffa, Carlos F. Corvalan, Alex Chika Ezeh, Ruth Finkelstein, Sharon Friel, Trudy Harpham, Maharufa Hossain, Beatriz de Faria Leao, Gora Mboup, Mark R. Montgomery, Julie C. Netherland, Danielle C. Ompad, Amit Prasad, Andrew T. Quinn, Alexander Rothman, David E. Satterthwaite, Sally Stansfield, and Vanessa J. Watson
Published By Journal of Urban Health
Edited By Saba Bilquis
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Roundtable on Urban Living Environment Research (RULER)

For 18 months in 2009–2010, the Rockefeller Foundation provided support to establish the Roundtable on Urban Living Environment Research (RULER). Composed of leading experts in population health measurement from a variety of disciplines, sectors, and continents, RULER met for the purpose of reviewing existing methods of measurement for urban health in the context of recent reports from UN agencies on health inequities in urban settings. The audience for this report was identified as international, national, and local governing bodies; civil society; and donor agencies. The goal of the report was to identify gaps in measurement that must be filled in order to assess and evaluate population health in urban settings, especially in informal settlements (or slums) in low- and middle-income countries. Care must be taken to integrate recommendations with existing platforms (e.g., Health Metrics Network, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) that could incorporate, mature, and sustain efforts to address these gaps and promote effective data for healthy urban management. RULER noted that these existing platforms focus primarily on health outcomes and systems, mainly at the national level. Although substantial reviews of health outcomes and health service measures had been conducted elsewhere, such reviews covered these in an aggregate and perhaps misleading way. For example, some spatial aspects of health inequities, such as those pointed to in the 2008 report from the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants.

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