Smart City, Just City
I was asked to guest blog on this topic by IHC Global as a part of their Smart City, Just City blog series leading up to the United Nations Habitat Assembly in Nairobi in May 2019.
It goes without saying that urban health is an essential component of the smart city conversion … But perhaps it does need saying again?
Quality of life is improved by basic and effective health access and quality of life should be improved as a part of any smart city strategy. However, ‘improving health’ can sound like a vague target, an overwhelming issue that is too hard, and too multifaceted to tackle with any real impact, especially for the 61% of urban Africans who live in slums [1].
I believe that the smart integration of simple data-gathering digital tools into any healthcare approach can have an extraordinary, ongoing impact, and health data should be routinely viewed alongside other urban data.
My start-up Access Afya has been able to showcase a successful model for data gathering and use in urban slums at an extremely low cost. We have quantitatively and qualitatively proven that when combined with other urban initiatives, health impact is amplified. Here I will lay out how the smart health experience can inform strategy for creating Smart, Just cities.
