THE URBAN POOR
Despite the fast pace of urbanisation and the high proportion of poor people thought to be living in urban areas or urban slums, and an increasing policy focus on these population group, we know remarkably little about the availability of family planning services and commodities in the urban areas
of Nepal, their use, and which specific barriers the urban poor may experience.
The lack of evidence and information from Nepal is in sharp contrast with the increasing volume of literature from neighbouring countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. These countries are also undergoing rapid urbanisation and have to deal with a range of service delivery challenges not dissimilar from Nepal. In these countries, urban health programmes using different combinations of approaches have already been developed and sometimes taken to scale. Their experience appears particularly relevant to the Nepal context, and can offer important lessons once the current information gaps are addressed.