Reaching the urban poor: addressing inequities in health
The RUP Approach is a strategy to address urban health inequities among the urban poor and increase their access to basic health services. It is guided by the principles of inter-sectoral action, community partnership, social cohesion and empowerment. RUP is being implemented in nine (9) urban centers nationwide. Seven of the sites – Caloocan, Makati, Malabon, Navotas, Paranaque, Taguig and Quezon City – are in Metro Manila. One site is in Tacloban City of the Visayas and another one in General Santos City in Mindanao.
Functional city-level RUP Technical Working Groups (TWGs) are established in the nine sites. Some sites organized RUP TWGs at the community level to increase the involvement of the barangay officials and stakeholders. Each site also gathered baseline data from the identified 221 communities. The cities used the survey data to improve their Health Information System and to target more clients to increase their coverage for MCH services, particularly EPI, vit. A, child nutrition, as well as prenatal and postnatal care. The health service delivery to the identified urban poor communities were strengthened, especially those who are previously unreached and underserved areas. This was done through training and mobilization of volunteers, outreach and establishment of satellite clinics
Accomplishments
Increases in the accomplishments of the health centers were noted, particularly along maternal and child care indicators. Taguig City which has implemented the RUP initiative since 2005, when it was still called RED or Reaching Every Depressed Barangay. In 2011, Taguig was among the site selected to pilot the RUP approach. A comparison between the 2010 and the 2011 accomplishments of the eight (8) RUP barangays in Taguig, revealed that there were significant increases in terms of basic MNCHN services.
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