Covid-19 experience among slum dwellers in Nairobi

A double tragedy or useful lesson for public health reforms

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9974094
AutoresIsrael Nyaburi Nyadera (0000-0002-0432-6935, University of Macau, Macau, autor de correspondencia), Francis Onditi (0000-0003-0931-7752, Riara University)
Año2020
Volumen63
Número6
Páginas838-841
Fecha de publicación2020-07-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Social Work (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-8728 • E-ISSN: 1461-7234
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0020872820944997
OpenAlexW3046524125
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the socio-economic and health dimensions of many societies across the world. For those in urban informal settlements, direct and indirect negative impacts of the pandemic and the resulting government policies have had devastating consequences on their livelihood. As the virus continues to spread rapidly, the more popular measures such as curfews, lockdown, and working from home have overlooked the fate of slum dwellers, who are left to choose between life and livelihood. This article examines the unique challenges people in informal settlements are facing during the pandemic. It focuses on the city of Nairobi, which has several informal settlements where more than 4 million people reside. The authors note that a combination of systematic marginalization, poor policies, and inadequate planning has left millions of people in Nairobi vulnerable to the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article concludes that as the virus continues to spread rapidly and the emerging socio-economic challenges undermine government’s capacity to respond to the crisis, support from other stakeholders such as social workers may have a positive impact

Agriculture · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Geography · Government (linguistics · Human settlement · Informal settlements · Livelihood · Pandemic · Political science · Population · Public health · Slum · Socioeconomics · Sociology · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Medicine · Urban and Rural Development Challenges