Dr. Eliphas Gitonga of the department of Population, reproductive health and community resource management housed in the school of Public Health and applied human sciences has won a competitive Urban Family Planning research and policy fellowship funded by International Union of Scientific Study of populations (IUSSP) and is being supervised by IUSSP Panel on Family Planning, Fertility and Urban Development. The funded project at USD 41,000 is “Family planning among blended Somali Women aged 15 -39 years in Nairobi: Barriers and Inequalities in Nairobi City, Kenya”. By 2050, it is estimated that 2 billion of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. With an annual growth rate of 4%, Nairobi city (the study location), the Kenyan capital, is one of the fastest growing cities in sub-Saharan Africa and is projected to increase in size to five million residents by 2025. Such rapid urban growth has negative influence on health of vulnerable populations such slum dwellers, adolescents, orphans and refugees. Family planning is critical is achieving SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) by improving human rights of women via enabling them to choose the number of children, timing, spacing and contraception. Currently most researches have no linkage with policy thereby deeming them only academic and reducing sustainability of any interventions. This project will bridge this gap through production of policy relevant/appropriate evidence, stakeholder engagement, policy communications and effective dissemination of key findings to target global and local audience. Key relationships that will be established in this study is urbanization and family planning, barriers/inequalities of family planning services among vulnerable city populations and the family planning policy situation of urban vulnerable communities.
Dr. ELIPHAS GITONGA MAKUNYI , PhD