A new report finds nearly a third of refugees and other people cared for by the U.N. refugee agency are not getting their basic needs met. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. 
The U.N. refugee agency conducted assessments in eight pilot countries, including Cameroon, Ecuador, Georgia, Rwanda, Thailand, Tanzania, Yemen and Zambia early this year.
Refugees living in camps, as well as those living in urban areas were surveyed. So were internally displaced and stateless people.
U.N. refugee spokeswoman, Jennifer Pagonis tells VOA aid workers were unprepared for what they found.
“And, the startling finding, I think, was really that 30 percent of the basic needs of refugees are not being met. And, that is for education, health, sanitation,” said Pagonis. “Very simple things like this that can have such a profound effect on the lives of refugees.”
Pagonis says refugees living in camps tend to get assistance, such as food, from humanitarian agencies. She says they also live in a slightly more protected environment than do urban refugees.
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Health of the Urban Poor in India: Key Results from the NFHS, 2005-06. (pdf, full-text)
Description: India’s urban population has been increasing rapidly in recent decades along with rapid urbanization. It is estimated that 80.8 million persons in urban areas live below the poverty line. The urban poor rarely benefit from the facilities in urban areas and are as deprived as those in the rural areas. The health of the urban poor is considerably worse off than the non poor in urban area and is comparable to the rural figures.
This wall chart presents the health of the urban poor in India compared with other population groups based on an analysis of the Third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) conducted in 2005-06. A wealth index has been developed based on 33 assets and household characteristics. The bottom quartile in urban areas is taken as the representative of the urban poor.
Health of the Urban Poor in Uttar Pradesh: Key Results from the National Family Health Survey,2005-06. (pdf, full-text)
Description: The urban poor population in Uttar Pradesh has been increasing rapidly in recent decades along with rapid urbanization. As per the 2001 Census, 3.45 crore persons were residing in towns and cities of Uttar Pradesh. It is estimated that 1.17 crore persons comprising 30.6 per cent of the urban population of the state lives below the poverty line. The urban poor rarely benefit from the facilities in urban areas and are as deprived as those in the rural areas. The health of the slum communities is considerably worse off than the non poor in urban area and is comparable to the rural figures.
This wall chart presents health of the urban poor in Uttar Pradesh compared with other population groups based on an analysis of the Third National Family Health Survey conducted in 2005-06. A wealth index which measures the economic status of households has been developed based on 33 assets and household characteristics. The bottom quartile in urban areas is taken as the representative of the urban poor.
Health of the Urban Poor in Rajasthan: Key Results from the National Family Health Survey, 2005. (pdf, full-text)
Description: The urban poor population in Rajasthan has been increasing rapidly in recent decades along with rapid urbanization.As per the 2001 Census, 1.32 crore persons comprising 23.4 percent of the total population were living in towns and cities of Rajasthan. It is estimated that 47.51 lakh persons comprising 32.9 per cent of the urban population of the state live below the poverty line. Urban Poverty in Rajasthan is almost double that in rural areas of the state. The urban poor rarely benefit from the facilities in urban areas and are as deprived as those in the rural areas. The health of the slum communities is considerably worse off than the non poor in urban area and is comparable to the rural figures.
This wall chart presents health of the urban poor in Rajasthan compared with other population groups based on an analysis of the Third National Family Health Survey conducted in 2005-06. A wealth index which measures the economic status of households has been developed based on 33 assets and household characteristics. The bottom quartile in urban areas is taken as the representative of the urban poor.
Health of the Urban Poor in Maharashtra – Key Results from the National Family Health Survey, 2005. (pdf, full-text)
Description: Maharashtra is the second most urbanized state in India. It has an urban population of 4.1 crore comprising 42.4% of the state’s population which is expected to be double by the year 2026. It is estimated that 1.46 crore persons comprising 32.2 % of the urban population of the state live below the poverty line. Maharashtra has the highest urban poor population in India and is rapidly growing. The urban poor rarely benefit from the facilities in urban areas and are as deprived as those in the rural areas. The health of the slum communities is considerably worse off than the non poor in urban areas and is comparable to the rural figures.
This wall chart presents health of the urban poor in Maharashtra compared with other population groups based on an analysis of the Third National Family Health Survey conducted in 2005-06. A wealth index which measures the economic status of households has been developed based on 33 assets and household characteristics. The bottom quartile in urban areas is taken as the representative of the urban poor.
“The spread of dengue in the region has been attributed by the WHO to “unplanned urban development,” human migration and high population density. The more crowded an area is, the more opportunities there are for the transmission of the virus.”
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MANILA, Oct 2 (IPS) – Over the past three decades, dengue fever has affected more and more countries in the Asia-Pacific region and is now regarded as the fastest of emerging mosquito-borne diseases.
From 1991-2004, a dengue pandemic emerged in the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Western Pacific region which covers 37 states and areas. It severely affected 10 countries: Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, French Polynesia, Fiji, New Caledonia and China.
Since 2007, there have been an unusually high number of dengue cases in Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore and Kiribati. The disease is now so widespread in the region that the WHO estimates that 1.8 billion people are at risk of contracting dengue.
Over the last three months, the Indian capital of New Delhi reported 600 cases of dengue of which two turned fatal.
Yet, according to the WHO, dengue is a “neglected disease” that attracts public attention and government commitment only during epidemics. And by then it is usually already too late for effective action.
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The Czech Academy of Sciences’ environment committee has launched an unusually strong attack on Prague officials for planning to liquidate vast green areas in the city and replace them with new buildings.
The scientists warn that new development will further spoil the environment in the capital city, which is right now the most polluted location in the country. Children’s diseases will become more prevalent and mortality among the elderly will increase as a result.
In the last few months, individual Prague districts have sent City Hall their comments on a new zoning plan that should come into effect in 2010. Despite opposition from residents, authorities are proposing to transform many green areas into residential zones.
“Such proposals indicate a total ignorance of the fundamental role of green spaces in an urban environment,” the academy says in a statement. The environment committee is led by Radim Šrám, an internationally recognized expert on the monitoring of environmental impacts on human health.
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The Worldwatch Institute reports that a growing number of US city-dwellers are raising their own chickens, often in defiance of local ordinances. 
Citing unsanctioned henhouses in Denver, Boston, and other cities, Worldwatch’s Ben Block notes that an “underground ‘urban chicken’ movement has swept across the United States in recent years,” flouting authorities’ concerns about noise, odors, and public health.
But in some cities, such as Ann Arbor, Mich., Ft. Collins, Colo., South Portland, Maine, and Madison, Wisc., owners of these clandestine coops have successfully changed the laws to allow them to keep a limited number of hens. (Roosters, whose characteristic crowing can disturb neighbors, are usually more restricted, but they’re not needed for hens to lay unfertilized eggs.)
Many large US cities, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and Seattle apparently never thought to ban the domesticated fowl within city limits. These cities have served as an incubator of sorts for the emerging movement, in which urban henkeepers post online tips on building coops, caring for the birds, and fending off raccoons and other predators.
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Standard Chartered Bank today announced that Seeing is Believing, its global initiative to help tackle avoidable blindness, will invest US$20 million over the next five years to fund the development of sustainable eye care services in less advantaged areas of 20 cities worldwide. The announcement is timed to coincide with World Sight Day taking place this week, an annual event focusing on the problem of global blindness.
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The new urban focus of the programme reflects the increasing incidence of avoidable blindness in cities, especially as urbanisation swells the numbers of people living in less advantaged areas, where access to eye care is poor and awareness around eye health is low. The services will also be sustainable, designed to support marginalised and excluded populations both now and in the future.
Two projects have already been selected in Hyderabad and Delhi. The Bank’s partnership in these projects would be through Operation Eyesight Universal (OEU), a Canadian organization committed to developing and modelling blindness prevention programmes and eye care delivery systems that reflect the needs of the region or country. For the India projects, OEU will focus on creating strong links between community and the various levels of eye care service systems. This new vision for Seeing is Believing brings the programme closer to the heart of the Bank’s communities.
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In Tanzania at least 25 percent of people now live in urban areas growing at over 6 percent per annum, around twice the national rate of population growth.
There are ten major towns with populations of over 150,000 with the major city and port, Dar es Salaam, having a population of nearly four million.
According to statisticians an average of seven out of ten urban dwellers are now living in unplanned homes and according to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development “generally the state of human settlements in Tanzania is poor and needs to be improved.“
It is against this background the Government is taking measures including a programme to survey and upgrade hundreds of thousands of plots particularly in urban areas to improve human settlements.
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