A two-day stakeholder planning workshop, aimed at developing a strategic plan to improve health conditions in urban settlements, has concluded in Ashaiman in the Greater Accra region.
Stakeholders would also design a slum upgrading plan that would indicate how sustainable urban development can be achieved for the maintenance of good health in these communities.
Stakeholders in research efforts would create new methodological and translational innovations that integrate and go beyond discipline-specific approaches to solving a common problem in urban communities faced with the provision of essential amenities.
It brought together experts and practitioners in the field of sustainable urban development and health, working closely with local communities, city officials and development partners within the framework of “Developing Resilient African Cities and their urban environments”.
It was organized by DREAMS, a transdisciplinary research project, made up of researchers from different disciplines, in partnership with the University of Ghana and funded by Belmont Forum, an international partnership that mobilizes funds for environmental change to remove barriers criticisms of sustainability.
Dr. Maame Gyeke-Jandoh, Head of Department of Political Science and School of Social Sciences, University of Ghana, who was the Ghana Dreams Team Leader, in an interview with Ghana News Agency , expressed concern about the health problems of the slums. communities in Africa, and urged participants to identify key initiatives and action items to guide their slum environment design efforts in the context of knowledge co-development.
She said that through the workshop, participants would understand the challenges the communities were facing, adding that “we will work together to overcome them” and strategically plan slum development to reduce the impact by identifying the best approaches to address. challenges.
Dr Gyeke-Jandoh said: “There is a limit from authorities but the biggest challenges were with the people themselves and how they perceived health issues in localities.”
Mr. Francis Hans-Jorie, President of City 2000 Youth Action International (C2YA), non-governmental organization and local partners of the DREAM project, and member of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) who welcomed the participants declared: “We are witnessing urbanization and the creation of slums in most of our cities” and urged participants to intensify their research efforts to ensure a healthy and quality environment.
“That is why it has become important to bring stakeholders together to deliberate on best practices for slum upgrading to improve people’s livelihoods and health conditions,” he said.
Prof Christine Furst, head of DREAM Project International, presenting an overview of the programme, said people go to cities because they want to have a better economic situation.
“We need to know why they migrate and for them to understand it better. This is a great opportunity to see how Africa and cities can work together to ensure good basic amenities,” she said.
Professor Henry Bulley, a member of the DREAM project who also spoke about the Charrette, a workshop dedicated to a concerted effort to solve a problem or plan the design of something, urged participants to engage community members to come up with a lasting solution to the problems. .
“The solution of informal settlement would never be achieved unless we connect it to what is happening in communities and find best practices to address these issues,” he said.
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