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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Implications of trends for future directions: Shifting Opportunities
>> Foreign Aid in the National Interest >> Chapter 3 >> Implications of trends for future directions Jump to Chapter 3 Sections:
>> Health, development and aid >> Broad progress, startling changes, persistent quandaries >> Health indicators: advances and obstacles >> Health systems and services >> To review the bidding >> Implications of trends for future directions >> Implications for the philosophy and pursuit of "foreign assistance" >> Notes >> Background paper >> References
Opportunities in global health are a direct result of the changing demographics, epidemiology, and diversity in the populations of developing countries. The opportunities do not imply that humanitarian programs should be eliminated where such needs continue to dominate national landscapes.
Nor do they imply, in the majority of developing countries currently in the health transition, that core public health functions dealing with conventional problems do not need to be maintained. Clearly, the scaffolding of public and private services that supports progress is a pre-requisite to transition itself. In coming years, however, where economic progress and democratic governance advance alongside epidemiological change, the burden for maintaining that scaffolding can rest on the countries themselves.
Infectious diseases-Help wanted: public health infrastructure
Much has been written about the importance of global systems for infectious disease surveillance. 105 The priority is for using technology to decentralize data collection and improve data sharing. An equal need is for improved clinical and laboratory capacity to diagnose and study patients with potentially new diseases or syndromes, and to quickly disseminate findings, as well as for the local personnel, skills, and systems needed to intervene.
Given the importance of nutrition to infectious diseases, the intersection between health strategies and nutrition and food security is also important. In contrast to surveillance strategies, however, nutrition linkages would need to be addressed at a variety of points within national development strategies, from households to agricultural strategies to national distribution and financial systems.
Increasing both the availability and quality of food will remain critical, especially in light of the World Health Report findings on the importance of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiency to child mortality. Future agricultural strategies should complement the current cadre of successful interventions to reduce micronutrient malnutrition, especially vitamin A deficiency. Agriculture has a role to play in addressing health and nutrition issues, not only through the production of food supplies, but also in generating the incomes of poor rural populations. New agricultural approaches, such as biofortification of staple crops, should continue to be explored. Using crop breeding techniques to improve the density of three key nutrients (iron, zinc, and betacarotene) in staple crops primarily consumed by the poor-for example, rice, wheat, maize, cassava, and common beans-agricultural researchers could provide a relatively cost-effective and sustainable means of delivering micronutrients to the poor.
Malnutrition and child mortality (Box 3.4)
"In poor countries today, there are 170 million underweight children, over three million who will die this year as a result. All ages are at risk, but underweight is most prevalent among children under five years of age, and WHO estimates that approximately 27 percent of children in this age group are underweight. This caused an estimated 3.4 million deaths in 2000, including about 1.8 million in Africa and 1.2 million in countries in Asia. Significantly, it was a contributing factor in approximately 60 percent of all child deaths in developing countries."
Source: The World Health Report 2002. Geneva: World Health Organization.
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Last Updated on: October 07, 2009 |
