Established in 2013, with the focus on health equity challenges of the urban poor, particularly on urban health governance; the Centre works in inter-sectoral research, training, policy and results-based action. The Centre motivates evidence-based dialogue and decision-making, and supports partnerships and networking among government policymakers, private and public service providers, researchers and development partners. The key areas of the Centre’s work include training and capacity development to enhance skills and competencies for better urban health governance, inter-sectoral action, needs and impact assessments as well as programme design, implementation and evaluation. Research at the Centre focuses on urban health governance, community engagement and accountability, and facility mapping and innovations in service delivery models for the urban poor. With broad participation of relevant sectors (health, housing, transport, etc.) and stakeholders (development partners, local government, NGOs, etc.), the Centre applies an evidence-based approach to building consensus, aligning resources and coordinating action towards better governance practices.
PATHWAYS TO EQUITABLE HEALTHY CITIES
A team of researchers from the ‘Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities’ project, being undertaken by Centre of Excellence for Urban Equity and Health (CUEH) at BRAC JPGSPH, has presented their research findings on Dhaka’s waste management, policy governance, inequality and poverty estimates for small areas, and ambient lighting at the International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH), 2021, in four sessions held on 6-8 July 2021. The list of the conference presentation is given below:
- “Governance Challenges in the Existing Solid Waste Management Sector in Dhaka, Bangladesh” Delufa Tuz Jerin (Presenting author), Hasna Hena Sara, Marzuka Ahmad Radia, Prianka Sultana Hema, Salma Akter Urme, Shahriar Hasan, Camilla Audia, Md Tanvir Hasan, Zahidul Quayyum.
- “Household Waste Generation to Disposal in Secondary Transfer Stations in Dhaka City: Barriers and Facilitators Influencing Environmental Sustainability.” Marzuka Ahmad Radia (Presenting author), Md. Uzzal Chowdhury, Shakil Ahmed, Prianka Sultana Hema, Shahriar Hasan, Delufa Tuz Jerin, Rafiul Alam, Hasna Hena Sara, Zahidul Quayyum, Md. Tanvir Hasan.
- “Predicting and mapping poverty in small areas of Dhaka City: a mixed effect model approach using consumption data.” Zahidul Quayyum (Presenting author), M. Shafiqur Rahman, Md. Uzzal Chowdhury, Rafiul Alam, Marzuka Ahmad Radia, Alicia Catherine Cavanuagh, Brian E Robinson
- “Poor lighting and health in Dhaka.” Judith I. Rodriguez (Presenting author), Marzuka A. Radia, Riaz H. Khan, Zahidul Quayyum, Gary AdamkiewiczSee below for project details:
PI: Professor Zahidul Quayyum, Director of Research and
Co-Director, CUEH, BRAC JPGSPH.
Co-PI: Dr Md Tanvir Hasan, Associate Professor,
Co-Director of Research and Co-Director, CUEH, BRAC
JPGSPH.
Technical Advisor: Professor Sabina Faiz Rashid, Dean and
Director, CGSRHR, BRAC JPGSPH.
Coordinator: Marzuka Ahmad Radia, Research
Coordinator, BRAC JPGSPH
Objective: The project aims to analyse data bearing in mind the influence of different factors that impact child health outcomes in Dhaka city. This is to shape actionable policy scenarios through stakeholder consultation and validation.
Timeline: September 2018 - April 2022
Donor: Wellcome Trust through Imperial College London.
Partners: Ames Research Center; Anzhen Hospital China; Arizona State University; Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE); McGill University, Canada; Imperial College London, UK; Public Health England; Simon Fraser University Canada; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; The University of Chicago; Tsinghua University, China; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; University of British Columbia; University of Ghana.
COMMUNITY-LED RESPONSIVE AND EFFECTIVE URBAN HEALTH SYSTEMS (CHORUS)
PI: Professor Zahidul Quayyum, Director of Research and Co-Director, CUEH, BRAC JPGSPH.
Coordinator: Baby Naznin, Senior Research Assistant, BRAC JPGSPH.
Objective: A seven year-long project to build a resilient and responsive urban health system to the existing challenges e.g., double burden of Communicable and Non-communicable Diseases, dominance of NGO sector, low health service coverage for marginalised urban people; through capacity building and research uptakes including sectors beyond health and enabling linkages between multiple government, NGO and private providers, whilst ensuring accountability to urban residents, particularly the poor.
Timeline: May 2020 - April 2026
Donor: UK Department for International Development (DFID), RPC.
Partners: Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development; University of Leeds; University of York; ARK Foundation, Bangladesh; HERD International, Nepal; University of Nigeria; University of Ghana.
Activities of Community-led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems Project in 2020 Click here
Octber - December 2021
Capacity Strengthening of Urban Health System Actors (Urban health researchers in partner organizations and their networks; health policymakers, local governments, service providers; urban local communities) at individual, organizational and systems level.
BRAC JPGSPH is engaged in developing Urban Health system related country project and engaging the stakeholders & communities
Conducting Systematic review on Public Private Partnership models of Urban Health system in LMICs
The BRAC JPG CHORUS team (Professor Zahidul Quayyum, Baby Naznin, Jannatun Tajree) attended (will attend) two webinars on ‘’Using WHO-recommended Health Facility Assessment Tool in project design’’ and ‘Research and Interventions in Complex Adaptive Systems” under the Capacity Strengthening activities of CHORUS project. The webinars were (will be) held on 2 October 2021 and 6 December 2021 respectively organized by CHORUS core research team.
Professor Zahidul Quayyum has been selected as a Visiting Academic at the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development of University of Leeds, UK. He has joined the CHORUS project’s PhD supervisory committee and will supervise one of the PhD students (Mr. Zahid Hasan) of the project
Updates fron January-March 2022
CHORUS researchers at BRAC JPGSPH attended the three-day virtual CHORUS Annual Partner meeting in January and February. The sessions highlighted the project activity updates from different partners followed by several cross-partner activities and group works to share the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and other difficult circumstances. In the concluding session, every partner shared their upcoming plans for respective country-specific projects.
As part of CHORUS capacity strengthening activities, Professor Zahidul Quayyum leads one of the CHORUS Action Learning Groups (ALG)-Systematic Review ALG. In the ALG, the members are working on a systematic review on Urban Health Public-Private Partnerships in LMICs under the supervision of Professor and other mentors. A protocol has been developed and submitted for publication after registering in the PROSPERO. The mentors and members are now conducting the full-text screening of the review.
As part of CHORUS capacity strengthening activities, monthly CHORUS wide webinars are being organized. In January 2022, a webinar was arranged on Gender and Intersectionality. In the webinar, the discussants talked about gender guidelines, intersectionality, intersectional analysis, the Morgan framework as well as how to use the guidelines. In addition, there were deliberations on the WHO TDR toolkit in relation to gender guidelines and how gender and intersectionality variables can be included during secondary data analysis and designing quantitative data collection and analysis. In March, a webinar was held on Health System Responsiveness, where the presenter discussed how health system responsiveness is framed and empirically assessed, to inform the possible application of this concept in the health system-related Projects.
ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIVENESS IN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS FOR EQUITY (ARISE)
PI: Professor Sabina Faiz Rashid, Dean and Director CGSRHR, BRAC JPGSPH.
Co-PI: Bachera Akter, Assistant Director, CGSRHR, BRAC JPGSPH.
Coordinator: Bachera Akter, Assistant Director, CGSRHR, BRAC JPGSPH.
Objective: A mixed method to catalyse change in approaches to enhancing accountability and improving the health and wellbeing of poor, marginalised people living in informal urban settlements.
Timeline: December 2018 - February 2024
Donor: UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund.
Partners: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), UK; Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK; Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, UK; The University of York, UK; George Institute for Global Health, India; Slum/Shack Dwellers’ International (SDI), India; African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), Kenya; Liverpool VCT Health (LVCT Health), Kenya; Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC), Njala University, Sierra Leone; College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), University of Sierra Leone.
Updates fron January-March 2022
The ARISE team visited two sites under ARISE Responsive Fund outside of Dhaka – Greenland slum, Khulna City Corporation and Baje Kajla slum, Rajshahi City Corporation. During the visit, the team conducted brief interviews with community members to understand about livelihood, challenges during COVID-19 lockdown, their families, and community, current scenario, services provided by ARISE Responsive Fund. The team also interviewed CDO members and Community Organisers (COs) about the services they provide and the challenges they faced in the community during the COVID pandemic
Besides site visits the ARISE Bangladesh team members participated in 2 courses, organised 8 meetings with government officials and policy makers in different cities, set up 2 healthcamps, 1 podcast, 3 presentations,