WASH-related violence in urban informal settlements in Bangladesh, Kenya, India and Sierra Leone: Co-producing knowledge for just health systems

A poster, presented at Bintu Mansaray, Rosie Steege, Samira Sesay, Inviolata Njeri Njoroge, Ivy Chumo, Caroline Kabaria, Blessing Mberu, Partho Mukherjee, Surekha Garimella, Riaz Hossain, Sabina Rashid, Rachel Tolhurst, Neele Wiltgen Georgi, Kate Hawkins, Sally Theobald and Laura Dean, at the 8th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research.

Urban informal settlements are characterised by poor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), inadequate waste management, overcrowding and viewed as problematic in health systems policy and programming. For residents, multiple intersecting inequities shape their agency and vulnerability to human rights violations. Power manifests in symbolic, structural, and direct violence for individuals experiencing urban informality and is highly interdependent and exacerbated by intersectional inequities. There is limited literature exploring experiences of WASH-related violence, yet for those living in urban informality it constitutes an everyday concern. Moving towards just health systems requires addressing epistemic injustices by addressing community concerns and priorities it demands co-production approaches that identify community capabilities and a reconceptualisation of informal settlements as sites of progressive change.