ESRC Shock Tactics Urban Health Futures in the Wake of Ebola

About this project
This research, undertaken in partnership with the Institute of Development Studies in the UK, seeks to understand the resilience of health systems in the post Ebola period. The three year ethnographic research is targeting the Freetown informal settlements of CKG and Moyiba to understand the following:

• how people in informal settlements understand or misunderstand health conditions they typically experience
• how outsiders understand the health conditions of informal settlement dwellers
• strategies that informal settlers think could be applied to address their health problems.

Two research communities were selected for comparison of their levels of resilience based on distinguishing features including economic wellbeing, impact or levels of Ebola shocks and environmental factors like topography (eg. hillside versus seaside). The first phase of data collection started in October 2018, and the research is eliciting information from diverse categories of people including the disabled, widows, the elderly, and people of low or high economic backgrounds, to understand their unique perspectives of health and strategies for seeking healthcare when challenged by difficult health conditions. Further data collection will be followed by workshops bringing together health, community and policy stakeholders.

For further information on this project, please contact Dr. Joseph M Macarthy, Executive Director of SLURC.

Partners
Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex (IDS)

Funded by
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)