A woman's position within Kenyan society is quickly revealed on street level, in the boardroom and at home.

Data plays a crucial role in any serious effort to reduce urban poverty. It's tough to design initiatives and measure success without a clear understanding of who people are, where they live, and what problems they face.

Lack of planning, rapid urbanization, and overcrowding are some of the issues residents face on a daily basis. Many current forms of urban transportation are inefficient, unsafe, and unsustainable. The following examples are from cities attempting to create an efficient and affordable system.

Access to water is a central issue for slum dwellers around the world. Getting water is often a time-consuming endeavor that involves waiting in long lines and walking great distances. Water is often more expensive for the poor than for the wealthy, demanding a large portion of families' budgets.

Because residents of informal settlements in Mexico City are under constant threat of eviction, they do not make infrastructure necessary investments, thereby reducing their health and quality of life.

As slums, schools, and homes are designed and built in cities across the developing world, the urban poor are making use of new and innovative approaches to construction.

The war tore their hearts open, their bodies open, their families open. But they learned to create a wheel with their human presence for each other: what they lose through those gaps, they transform into performance, and enacting it with one another gives nourishment back.

What impact do local traditions have on health indicators? How can modern approaches be paired with indigenous customs to improve the health of communities? These are some of the questions that our correspondents set out to answer.

She carried a newborn baby on her front, and another, older baby on her back. She told me that she had already been pregnant 11 times, but only had six living children. I was immediately struck by the fact that although we were the same age, I had so many choices that she did not.

Life is cheap where hope is scarce. And here in Nairobi's Haruma slum, you have to look hard to find any hope.

If I were to sum up my time at Light of Hope in one word I would choose the word "smile." Here I am halfway across the world, don't know one word of the local language(s), unaware of what the next 10 days will have in store for me but what I did find out is that a facial expression of a smile can speak for itself.

Justin was only 13 when soldiers descended on his remote village in the Congo. His last most vivid memory of his family was being separated from them as his father yelled for Justin to run and not look back while his neighbors were attacked.