ABSTRACT
Introduction: the gender-health nexus as a development issue in cities Health is firmly established as a major development issue, manifested in the fact that four of the MDGs relate to health in some way: reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and ensure environmental sustainability (Schweitzer et al., 2012:15). Among these, Target 7c on access to safe water and sanitation is especially pertinent in urban slums, as identified in Chapter 4. Indeed, after being underweight at birth, the second most common health risk in low-income countries, as measured by disability adjusted life years (DALYs), owes to the assemblage of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WHO, 2009a:12). This, in turn, accounts for the fact that diarrhoea remains a leading cause of death among children under the age of five (UNICEF, 2015:46). For these reasons, it is little surprise that there is a proposed SDG dedicated to health, which is to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages’ (UN Open Working Group, 2014:9).
