The Nairobi Urban HDSS (NUHDSS) was the pioneer urban-based Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems. It was set up to fill the big evidence gap in understanding the implications of rapid urbanization and the rapidly growing concentration of poverty and ill health in slum settlements in Africa’s major cities. The site was set up by the African Population and Health Research Center in two slum settlements (Korogocho and Viwandani) in 2002. The main objective of the site was to provide a longitudinal platform for investigating linkages between urban poverty and wellbeing outcomes including health, demographic, and schooling. The NUHDSS also provides a platform for evaluation of interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing of the urban poor. The routine NUHDSS data have been analyzed and its longitudinal platform used to set up nested studies for the Urbanization, Poverty and Health Dynamics (UPHD) research program whose findings are presented in the present volume. The NUHDSS is a member of the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health in Developing Countries (INDEPTH), which was established in 1998 to support and strengthen the ability of its member HDSS sites to conduct prospective longitudinal studies and standardize surveillance methodologies and procedures
