Barbara Summers, November 17, 2025, 8 min
How can we transform research and practice so that the lived experience and voices of communities and children in informal settlements can shape global climate resilience conversations? This blog explains how we did it in the waterfront settlements of Port Harcourt. Life in Port Harcourt’s waterfront settlements Port Harcourt is the largest city in the Read more →
Tahmina Ferdousy, Kamrun Naher Ahmed, Mohammad Omar Faruque, Hayalnesh Tarekegn, and Rashed Shah from Save the Children's Bangladesh Sponsorship Team and the Urban Hub Team at Save the Children., September 23, 2025, 11 min
Community health workers (CHWs) in Bangladesh’s slums are improving healthcare access for children by addressing malnutrition, preventable diseases, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and maternal health. Organisations like BRAC and Save the Children are enhancing CHWs’ impact through training, mentoring and policy support, ensuring that the most at-risk children receive essential care. The UN Convention Read more →
Mara Forbes, October 29, 2024, 5 min
Cities Alliance and Slum Dwellers International (SDI) , with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), support youth-led climate action in informal settlements across 16 countries as part of the Building Resilience in Informal Settlements Programme. Informal settlements are home to some of the fastest-growing populations in the world, where over one billion people Read more →
Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children, October 1, 2024, 10 min
Pollution, heat stress, hunger and poverty are increasing in rapidly urbanising cities and towns in low-and middle-income countries, posing severe health risks to millions of children, particularly those living in slums and informal settlements. This blog identifies 11 actions that governments and other relevant stakeholders can take to promote healthy cities for all children. According Read more →
Sarah Sabry and Anupama Nallari at the Urban Hub @ Save the Children, October 31, 2023, 8 min
Over 1 billion people – including close to 500 million children – live in slums and informal settlements, mostly in cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 2023, the UN-Habitat Assembly approved a historic new Global Action Plan to accelerate transforming these informal settlements and slums. This plan aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 11 Read more →
Anupama Nallari and Sarah Sabry at the urban Hub @ Save the Children, June 13, 2023, 9 min
In dense, unplanned, and disadvantaged urban areas like slums and informal settlements, safe places and facilities where children can come together to learn, play, and access resources can be crucial for their health, development and wellbeing. In this blog, we share three types of facilities that deliver much-needed integrated services for children, young people and Read more →
Rob Hughes, Geoffrey Mboya and Elizabeth Kimani, May 2, 2023, 8 min
We have an understandable tendency to put things, people, and issues into boxes. One example of this has been how we’ve historically talked about environmental health separately from child health. For example, separating environmental health departments from those looking at maternal and child health (including at the World Health Organization, no less). But on a Read more →
Cities4Children, February 7, 2023, 7 min
The Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) collaborates with local community groups to transform underutilized risk-prone spaces in Kibera into a resilient and productive network of public spaces. This network of public spaces – comprising toilets, multipurpose halls, micro-enterprises, laundry facilities, play spaces, vegetable gardens, and schools – builds physical, social and economic resilience in informal communities Read more →
David Satterthwaite, October 31, 2022, 9 min
In the latest from our Ask an Expert series, we sit down with David Satterthwaite to hear more about his vast years of experience in the urban and environment space. David’s impressive research and writing has been cited more than 32,000 times. We would love to hear about your journey into urban planning and poverty Read more →
James Clacherty, October 25, 2022, 6 min
Emthonjenis are open-air learning spaces located around communal water taps in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa. They offer a safe space for children to access out-of-centre Early Childhood Development (ECD) services. We interviewed Phethang Mabeba, the ECD lead from Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU), to learn more about their model for combining Read more →
Cities4Children , January 25, 2022, 8 min
We may see a house as just that: a shelter and a space to call home. But what if that house is inadequate? If the house can’t be kept clean or it’s situated along a polluted, dusty road? What if it’s not safe, and even when they close the door, its residents can’t relax? What Read more →
Sheridan Bartlett and Cecilia Tacoli , January 11, 2022, 5 min
After decades of decline, global hunger and malnutrition are increasing. While on average urban children tend to fare better than rural children, one in three stunted children lives in the city. [bctt tweet=”In addition, rates of malnutrition are especially high among the urban poor, who must often face impediments to food security. ” username=”cities4children”] While obesity Read more →
