Poverty, Resource allocation and Security

Health status is a good measurement of how well a population is thriving. (Michael Marmot. “Social determinants of health inequalities”) Improving overall health is not limited to treatment and prevention of diseases. The influence of social factors plays a big part in determining the overall population health. Some important social factors will be taken into consideration are poverty, resource allocation and security.

Many studies have proven that poverty is a major public health problem. Poverty forces people to live in poor living conditions. Unsustainable housing, condensed and populated living area, less access to clean water, and poor sanitary condition are result of poverty. Many people who live in these neighborhoods are susceptible to disease because of less clean water and living close proximity to people who might have TB or other communicable disease. Poverty is associated with low socioeconomic status (SES). The culture of low socioeconomic status leads to engagement in high-risk behavior, such as alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and poor diet (Chapter 2). People with SES has higher rate of unemployment and poor job skills (Richard Wilkinson, “Socioeconomic determinants of health”). This can lead to stress, tensions and conflicts in family life. Poor job skills can also result in low self-esteem and thus low productivity at work and financial insecurity in life. Therefore, public policy should project at eradicating poverty, which is the root of major problems in the society.

Another social factor that contributes to population health is equal allocation of resources (Chapter 3) (Marmot, “Social determinants of health inequalities). Many countries are still facing the problem of providing equal access to physicians, hospital services and medicines. For example, in British’s NHS, patients are usually placed in long waiting lists for health services. In some cases, access to newer drugs is limited due to higher cost. Underdeveloped nations are short of skilled physicians and facilities. In addition to health care workforce, clean water and nutritious food are scarce resources. Seeing the large inequality of resources and needs of people in third world, Millennium Development Goals set by United Nations, with global partnership, aim to provide the fundamental needs of people in underdeveloped nations and alleviate health disparity within the nations.

The last social factor in this discussion is security. For a nation to thrive there has to be a level of security and protection provided by government. Current instability in Zimbabwe illustrates lack of security and safety, thus causing high violence rate. Unregulated inflation and economy in Zimbabwe forced most citizens to starvation, poverty and finally leading to outbreaks of violence. Without government’s guarantee on jobs, business, or food, the nation faces enormous challenges on safety as well as overall population health. In contrast, developed nation like US see the necessity to enforce laws for safer streets and community, thereby enabling public to engage in exercises and outdoor activities.

Poverty can directly affect nation’s economy and social issues. Allocation of resources and security depend on the hand of policy makers. Therefore, public policy should be aimed at reducing these social inequalities, thereby increasing health condition.

The Never Ending Cycle....and Blog Question

The cycle of poverty, health and development most certainly impacts political, social and economic issues on a global scale. This much is certain. However, it is important to keep in mind, that there is a lower threshold above which economic disparities within a population cease to have real meaning from a development perspective. What I am implying is that in a 3rd world nations, simple hygienic issues such as clean water most certainly affects the health levels of their citizens, whereas, in developed nations, these issues are obsolete. In this sense, it is appropriate to allocate global resources wisely and fairly distribute them amongst countries most in need. From an economic perspective, money and programs to increase health levels in a developing country most certainly has to come from global health non-profits or charity from other countries, hence affecting economy on a global scale. Furthermore, the advent of transnational economic integration and the emergence of a global marketplace has changed the nature of health determinants as well as allocation of resources.
With regards to the issues of politics, policy makers are key players to predict priorities, identify important global health issues for advocates and implementers. The Global Health Council and Foreign Assistance Program are just a couple of examples within the US of programs that help review America’s financial assistance to other countries worldwide.
Socially, as evidenced by Wilkinson’s journal entry in BMJ (Wilkinson RG. Socioeconomic determinants of health. Health inequalities: relative or absolute material standards? BMJ. 1997 Feb 22;314(7080):591-5), disparities in material possessions across nations did not seem to impact health determinants, whereas within societies, there seems to be a relative correlation b/w these disparities and health outcomes. This is interesting in that there is a strong psychosocial factor that comes into play here. You are comfortable having less than your neighbor….as long as you don’t know about it. So, clearly, those less fortunate within a society are at a disadvantage with regards to health care and feel it. This may promote a feeling of alienation from society, which again, as Wilkinson points out, has a negative impact on health. Those people who participate in society, tend to be ‘healthier’ individuals than those who are not.

There is a extreme divide between people who want to make these changes happen and those who want to continue to enjoy the luxuries they have experienced all their lives. Those millenium goals are not a new concept whatsoever. There have been many health programs, throughout the years, that have dedicated their time towards the control or eradication of malaria. Many health organizations have worked on these goals for many years, but it is difficult to have a successful program when politics get in the way. Major leaders of many underdeveloped countries have realized that poverty and health are huge influences on the country's social and economic development. If all of the population is either sick or illiterate, there is no way that country will success.
Also, poverty and health affect how well the country's resources will be utilized. Most underdeveloped countries have enormous resources that could contribute to the country's wealth and development. Unfortunately, there are many corrupt leaders that would rather allow other countries to utilize their resources, or sell them to the highest bidder. Therefore, health, poverty affects social and politics, social and political contribution also affects the health and poverty of a country.
Poverty has a great impact on the country's development. As we all know, poverty and lack of health education contributes to low birth weight, higher infant mortality rates, higher mortality rates from infectious diseases. All of which could be prevented if the society invests more of their resources in provided their population with a little more health education. This idea of health education is not new. Many organizations around the world have contributed to the education of many populations and it seems that we are on our way of global development. On the other hand, the gap between the poor and rich is still extremely wide. If the gap does not change, the poor will continue to receive low health services, and illiteracy.

PHD

Poverty, health and development does affect the economical, political and social stability of a country. You can not have poverty without having health problems, and this scenario usually is seen in under-developed countries. Improper sanitation, lack of running water and an unhealthy diet all affect a countries outcome and not in a positive way. Someone who is of poor health is not likely to contribute to the economic advancement of the country. Living in a poor environment is not going to enhance the health outcome of a population, which means that development is placed on hold. This is not beneficial for the countries economy, which is tied to the political stand point of its leaders, and thus affecting the social stability of a country. It is a cycle that continues to spiral, and unfortunately attempting to just work on just one aspect will not be sufficient enough, it needs to be a combination of efforts. What you do to help the economy will affect the fight against poverty, which in turns helps health outcomes.
The same is said if nothing is done to help the economy. Public health leaders need to take this into consideration when developing health programs in under-developed countries. They cannot expect a health program to survive when the country lacks the resources to sustain the program. Since it all is a trickle affect strategic planning is needed in order to ensure positive outcomes in all areas. That is why being informed on the countries economical, political and social stability is very important because these aspects depict how effective prevention programing will be and if relief efforts will be accepted by the country. It is sad to see that relief efforts are only effective when first implemented, and once volunteers leave, everything goes back to the way it was. A new plan of action needs to be created in order to ensure that this does continue to happen.

It's a Smaller World After All

The state of poverty and health on a country has a huge influence on its political, social, and economic states. Because we are increasingly become a more and more globalized world, it is imperative to address these issues of poverty and health as a collective group.

The world is plagued by health inequalities leaving the burden on the global community to handle. If the global community mobilizes and has a common vision, much can be done to help vulnerable groups from unnecessary suffering and death. As discussed in Global health improvement and WHO: shaping the future (http://www.equinetafrica.org/bibl/docs/LEEehs.pdf), one of the most urgent MDGs is the 3 by 5 target in HIV/AIDS treatment, which is to provide 3 million people in developing countries with access to antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2005. Another big goal of the MDG is to address the gorwing epidemics of non-communicable diseases, like heart disease and diabetes. In order to adquately address these issues, health determinants must be dealt with first. Health determinants that need to be addressed include: poverty, armed conflict, and levels of education of women. These issues all lie outside of the health sector, but are still crucial to achieving the desired health outcomes. If these factors can be addressed appropriately, then success of our health interventions are better. Today's reality is that we are living in a global world and we are more interconnected than ever. With all these new challenges that globalization brings (increase migration of people and microbes, bioterrorism, etc) more emphasis and resources needs to go towards public health. Public health needs to be viewed as a foundation of health to tackle these new challenges we face living in a global world.

The future of global health should focus, in my opinion, on educating women and ensuring proper water and irrigation. If these 2 factors are given priority, I believe it'll address a multitude of health problems that afflict vulnerable groups. The woman is key to the family, and by educating her and making her financially stable, she is able to educate her children on proper health and nutrition practices, as well as provide them with basic education to elevate their socioeconomic status. Also, water sanitation and irrigation is another very important issue to focus on. Many issues arise from not having proper access to safe and clean water. By solving this issue, many lives will be saved.

We tend to emphasize the implications globalization has had on developing nations such as growing inequities in wealth and access to health care and services, but at the same time globalization has given developed nations TOO much wealth and TOO much access, leading to their diminished health. With globalization brought a more convenient lifestyle for those in developed countries. Globalization has indirectly contributed to our poor diet, inactivity, smoking, and alcohol and drug use. This has shifted the trend from communicable to non-communicable caused deaths. Risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and other non-communicable disease need special attention now and in the future.

Poverty and health have an increasingly strong impact on the political, social, and economic states on a global scale urging us to unite together.

MDGs and Jeffrey Sachs

Since the question for this week is pretty broad, I decided to focus specifically on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that we watched in the YouTube video. When I think of the MDGs the first thing that comes to mind is Jeffrey Sachs’ book "The End of Poverty" (which was one of the first books I read that was related to public health). The book describes his role in developing the Millennium Development Goals and lays out the eight goals to be reached by 2015....but as I read the document my first reaction was one of shock... this was the first time people had formally come together to lay out these goals?!! Wasn't the world already dealing with these major problems and hadn't there been a united effort before? I was also expecting the MDGs to be much more specific about each target goal and how they were realistically going to achieve them. Sachs describes how the MDGS basically repeated long held commitments of the international community that had not been fulfilled in the past. For example, the international community’s 1978 pledge of “Health for All by the Year 2000,” fell short when the world arrived in 2000 with the AIDS pandemic, resurgent TB and malaria, and billions of the world’s poor was left without reliable, or sometimes any, access to essential health services. Other past efforts include the World Summit for Children in 1990, where the world pledged universal access to primary education by the year 2000, yet 130 million or more primary-aged children were not in school by then. The rich world had also famously committed to the target of 0.7 percent of GNP devoted to official development assistance, direct financial aid to poor countries, yet the share of financial aid from rich-world GNP actually declined from 0.3 to 0.2 percent during the 1990s. Yet Sachs still says that “[…] there was a palpable sense that this time-yes, this time-[the goals] just might be fulfilled.” (213) So what would make the effort more successful this time? New power of modern technologies? The strength of the ongoing economic boom? Our increasing global interconnectedness? Instead, he goes on to say how quickly optimism toward the MDGs were shattered because of the U.S. trauma of a tied national election, the end of the stock market boom, a spate of high-profile corporate scandals, but most of all the events of September 11th and the unwise ways in which the U.S. government reacted. I cannot help but get the sense that he knows that the current effort toward the MDGs will not be any more effective than past efforts. Throughout the book he never provides the reader with any reassurance as to why the MDGs would be more effective this time around. At the same time, I do not want to react too negatively toward the MDGs because I think that progress is important even if targets are missed. Setting out these goals can lead to progress being accelerated, even if at a snails pace. A passage he writes in the preface to his book has stayed with me,

“When the end of poverty arrives, as it can and should in our own generation, it will be citizens in a million communities in rich and poor countries alike, rather than a handful of political leaders, who will have turned the tide. The fight for the end of poverty is a fight that all of us must join in our own way […] We have exciting times ahead, and no time to lose.”

References:
Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty: How we can make it happen in our lifetime. London: Penguin. 2005.

Overcome

This is a fairly complex question, which I will attempt to delve into in my blog. The first thing that comes to mind immediately when reading this question is the point raised in Chapter 3 of the Comparative Health book. In the chapter the author mentions that the number one indicator of population “health” is wealth. There is a positive correlation between the nation’s wealth and its “health”, broadly defined by such factors as longevity, infant mortality, etc. The book then goes on to say that education is the biggest determinant of wealth of a nation. It directly follows that there is the connection between education and health care. This can be seen in three mutually interconnected ways: the first is that a better education will lead to practical knowledge about disease prevention and transmission and safer sex practices. Second, and more importantly, a better education will allow a person to be more confident about themselves, more informed about decisions they make and more capable to affect change in their country for the better. And finally, better education and its direct connection with increased wealth supplies the necessary means for providing better healthcare.
The goals set by the U.N are great in principle but largely devoid of practical meaning. Those millennium goals are tantamount to saying that we want the world to be perfect in seven years. These sound great but don’t really mean anything unless well-defined practical steps are delineated and followed through. I think what would be a lot better is if the global community sets one goal such as to end hunger and actually sets out exact realistic plans for how to go about solving the problem. The problems we face will not be solved by empty promises.
The cycle of poverty is very important on both local national and global scales. First, we must recognize the cycle and that it is hard to break generations of poverty and abuse which has been ingrained in many populations. Second, poor countries are often governed by corrupt and oppressive politicians who see the downtrodden as a means to satisfy their greed. It is critical to break that cycle and empower people to seek a better life. We, as privileged citizens of the global community, have a moral imperative to break the cycle and make those U.N goals a reality. A larger question to address when considering this problem is the usefulness of the U.N. itself to carry out the process. At best, the U.N. has a spotty record of its efficiency, with questions raised about the corruption of the U.N. officials (Kofi Annan’s son comes to mind), its cooperation with many oppressive regimes and extremist guerillas, and its overly top heavy bureaucracy. Alternatives, such as numerous NGOs should be considered in many practical applications.

Endless Cycle

The Fundamentals: In my eyes, poverty is defined by the lack of political, social, and economic support that a community needs to ensure health and development.  In other words, the lack of financial and governmental assistance is what helps spark the prevalence of poverty.  The formation of poverty-infested communities then prevents the ability for individuals to foster appropriate physical, mental, and spiritual health.  Finally, an unhealthy population cannot take part in bettering policies, the economy, or the role of government interventions.  This vicious cycle continues to repeat itself, confounding the negative consequences with each cycle, and diminishing any positive consequences until they no longer exist. 

 

Enter: Technology…Today’s availability of information through technology has caused a hyperawareness about issues worldwide.  Regardless of where you are, a person can obtain instantaneous (and mostly accurate) information about any single subject from anywhere in the world.  This constant feed of information at our fingertips has induced a possibly unintended, but much needed, consciousness about less known areas.  Thus, more and more people are now opening their eyes to an aspect of our population that has not changed much in hundreds of years; places that have not evolved at the same pace as developed nations, and are economically and developmentally stagnant.  Issues of extreme poverty have always existed, but they were more easily ignored 100 years ago, when the ability to obtain information from such places was lengthy and convoluted. 

 

Our Current Funk.  So, we have existing poverty-stricken aggregations that don’t know how to fix their problems.  We have nations that are entirely too eager to enter and change, without guiding the people in self-discovery and full internalization of why and how change is needed.  Lastly, there is a body attempting to standardize the global needs and govern these attempts to help.  The true necessity and responsible role of global outreach is not to change communities.  Instead, the focus must be to assess the needs of each individual community.  This does not mean, “give them potable water”.  This means to teach the people of a community to study proper irrigation, plumbing, and sewage systems that will eventually lead to sustainability, increased job opportunities, educational opportunities, and improved overall health from clean water.  Thus, reducing the issues within poverty will improve the larger-scale issues of policy, government, and economy.  I feel that we are currently too focused on saving those in need and as a global community, we are ignoring the fact that each community needs to slowly develop at its own pace to result in the development of sustainability.  We should assist in this process, without interfering in it.  This will truly be what helps our global community reduce poverty and its effects to improve economics, and vice versa.

Solutions! Solutions! Solutions!

Definitely the cycle of poverty, health and underdevelopment affects the quality of life globally in many ways, almost all negative. I think most of us agree on this.
But what are the solutions??? In the video we see, there are extreme poverty and hunger around the world. I mean it's not just the third world countries, even here in the inner cities, we have families worry about the next meal. When a human body is deprived of necessary nutrients, how can this being think anything beyond the empty stomach. The political dictators can take the advantage by keeping their subjects at the edge of hunger. There won't be any improvement for political or social networks since this type of control is a life and death issue. And the video clip also shows the women covered by white robes all over their bodies, the outside information can not penetrate their mind. The essential education is missing for these females. With an uneducated female population, we will have under-educated mothers. The ignorance pass down from one generation to another. Most likely in many parts of the third world, females need to depend on their spouses or families for basic survival. No economic power is granted toward half of the population because of their gender. The social infrastructures have little hope of being built if the cycle of war, hunger and deadly disease persist in that region. In this video, it does not mention wars. I think the civil war or regional war has aggregated the already bad situation. To breakaway from this kind of vicious cycle is no easy task. These countries need courageous and moral leadership and the awareness from the general public. They may also need the assistance from the more affluent countries. But these days, lots of industrialized nations are facing the recession problems domestically. They need first to help themselves to restore the prosperity then they are able to assist others. If the global economy is in the downturn cycle, developed or underdeveloped alike are going to suffer though the degree of suffering might be drastically different. When we talk about health, we need to be able feed and provide the clean water and sewage system to all around the world. On top of it, the political stability is also playing a crucial role. Every factor in intertwined and we can't say one element is more important than the other. Certainly a large sick population left untreated compound by poverty can not sustain a functional government. Chaos, despair and anger would be rampant. Aside from this, the environmental sustainability is in serious condition. Our planet earth has been contaminated or mismanaged by the human species. The love of our planet earth and the wisdom to manage our resources might be the very first step toward any improvement. This awareness has to be universally acknowledged developed as well as underdeveloped nations. Just a handful of nations care about the environment is not going to sustain our future. This is a global issue and every country which existed in this planet must be part of this cooperative network. Fragmentation, selfishness or ignorance would lead to the human extinction if we fail to sustain our habitation. No easy answers, but we need to focus on possible solutions otherwise we risk to cease to thrive on the only planet we know-the EARTH.

Dem Belly Full

I think that on a global scale, the cycle of poverty, health and development affects political, socialand economic issues in a negative way. Ultimately I think it harbors a negative impact on the advancement of diplomacy between and within nations. Economic stability and health are the underlying matters that determine how successful a civilization is. There are enormous implications to how productive a society can be that is ravished by poverty and poor health. The only outcome that results from this is political instability, social unrest and economic dearth, which stems across borders.

In this country, many may feel that the extensive problems that “third-world countries” face do not affect us. However, many fail to realize that in this age of globalization, that the problems of the world affect everyone in some way. Since the issues that face these countries seem so far away, we may forget that they find a way to come right out of our individual wallets/purses so to speak. We can look to the billions of dollars that the US loses in World Aid relief to developing countries to see one way they affect us.

I think the foremost substantial issue is best stated by a former revolutionary, Bob Marley, who once said “dem belly full but we hungry, a hungry man is a angry man.” There is a great resentment and hostility that arises from having poverty/poor health that people carry with them. The impact of living in poverty goes far beyond just not having money. According to the International Council of Nurses “the greatest adversities are the lost opportunities to develop essential human capabilities. Poverty is a disease that saps people's energy, dehumanizes them and creates a sense of helplessness and loss of control over one's life. Without health, a person's potential to escape from poverty is weakened due to lost time, labor, income, and the burden of health care costs.” With people being deeply disappointed and not satisfied with their lot in life, there is no way that they will be living and working at optimum productivity. A people divided and disgruntled will result in a society that won’t really function the way that it should because of the lack of productivity that arises from this.

Effects of Poverty on a Globalized World

This week’s blog topic is appropriate, as representatives of UN member countries will convene in New York to discuss the Millennium Development Goals (Thanks, Luke, for providing them below). UN countries’ revisiting the MDGs and assessing progress towards achieving them—even the very existence of the MDGs—really speak to how we as a global society think about how poverty, health, and development affect political, social, and economic issues.

In our increasingly globalized world, there is no doubt that great disparities in wealth, health, and development exist among countries. This recognition has moved wealthier, more developed countries to assist those less developed—a vital component for the achievement of the MDGs. Global aid necessitates cooperation among governments of different countries, as illustrated simply by the upcoming international meeting of MDG progress. There also must be transfer of wealth between and among countries in order to achieve the MDGs—and this has no doubt increased since the UN’s institution of these goals. To illustrate, Ireland’s contribution to global aid has increased nearly four-fold since the implementation of the MDGs (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0924/1222105169791.html). Thus, in considering the MDGs, global efforts to impact worldwide poverty affect relations between countries, in addition to the health and development of individual countries.

Oh, Look Another Win for Michael Phelps

What if 8 is not good enough by 2015? I mean 8 are fine for Michael Phelps, but is it okay to settle for 8 by 2015? Are we just settling just as this video settled for typically images, phrases, and sounds? Can’t we break this real glass ceiling in the world? Similar to questions posed, it is a vicious cycle that includes poverty, health, and development that directly affect the political, social, and economic scene. Is the topic sexy enough to campaign around? This video attempted to be super appealing, but I wasn’t even moved to call my Canadian partner in crime to tell him about my blog. I feel that there are favorites to where the politics, social events, and money come into play when dealing with poverty along with health and development. To be fair enough to say lets just take out poverty is ambitious, but not practical because there are so many underlying intertwining threads to vast areas of issues such as political, social, and economic determinants. I feel that the glass ceiling on real change in this real world, will not happen until we become members of an AA group meeting and admit that we have problems within the issue, that can’t be glamorously to be fixed without true leaders who do it not for the fame, money, politics, but do it for people. The people who are in the predicament and the people should be the focus of the issue. Not all that other stuff that seems to cloud the images.

Song of blog: T.I. feat Rihanna – Live your Life
"Just living my life (ay), my life (oh), my life (ay), my life (oh)"

Economic Development, Povert, and Health in a Globalized World

I think it would be incredibly difficult to make the argument that cycles of poverty, health, and development did not affect every aspect of global issues.  Between outsourcing, the Internet, travel, and the plethora of acronyms for the numerous global organizations (WTO, NAFTA, GATT, WHO, IMF, etc.) the world has indeed shrunk to the point where disruption anywhere means disruption everywhere.  Examples of this are happening in the news everyday.  Just in recent years we have seen how small fluctuations in China’s economy has a ripple effect on economies throughout the world, including Wall Street and the NYSE.  With massive international travel we have seen the emergence of possible global pandemics (e.g. SARS).  Environmental disasters, such as the 2004 earthquake/tsunami in the Indian Ocean devastated local economies, not only from industry destruction, but also from the massive drop-off in tourism.  Recently, there have been links showing that the US economic recession (or “slowdown” if you’d prefer) has precipitated a similar global trend with the value of the Euro dropping and even braking China’s expansion.  An even more obvious example, especially in the comparatively-spoiled-with-gas-prices US, would be the effect of OPEC’s price regulation on nearly every aspect of global society, from transportation to agriculture to manufacturing.

 Further, as mentioned in the other blogs, the contribution of poverty and inequity to social unrest and terrorism has profound implications for the global community.  While not always true, it has been shown that there is an inverse relationship between a person’s degree of fundamentalism and their socioeconomic status.  Therefore it could be argued that we only endanger ourselves through the suppression and exploitation of other countries and/or cultures.

            Of course the effects need not always be negative.  For instance, a total of $10 billion worldwide has been pledged to the victims of the 2004 tsunami.  Without the globalization of media, economics, and trade such a massive coordination could not have been organized.  While I am not aware of any solid data, one could imagine that the ability of the globalized media to raise awareness and to connect people with important causes is immeasurable.

 Two interesting/pertinent facts I came across:

     

1. 54% of web-traffic to NBA.com is from international visitors
2. Nearly 25% of the U.S. national debt is owned by foreign governments ($321 billion to China, $640 billion to Japan,  $98 billion to OPEC)
1. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) consists of 11 countries:  Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

 

For reference and ease of use here are the Millenium Development Goals with some of that depressing information:

 Millenium Development Goals

1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
1. 1.2 billion people live on $1 dollar/day or less
2. 800 million suffer from hunger even though food production has doubled since the 1970s
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
1. 121 million children are out of school

                                               i.     65 million girls

                                             ii.     56 million boys

3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
1. 575 million women are illiterate
2. Only 85 countries have reached gender parity in primary school enrollment
4. Reduce Child Mortality
1. 11 million children under age 5 die of preventable diseases
5. Improve Maternal Health
1. Every minute a woman in the developing world dies during pregnancy or childbirth
2. One in every 16 African women will die as a consequence of pregnancy
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, & Other Diseases
1. 42 million people live with HIV/AIDS

                                               i.     92% are in developing countries

2. One additional year of education for mothers reduces the under 5 mortality rate by nearly 10%

     7.  Ensure Environmental Sustainability

a.  1 billion people live in squalor and over 2 billion without adequate sanitation

b.  Over 1 billion people still live without safe drinking water

     8.  Develop a Global Partnership for Development

The effects of poverty, health, and devlopment!

There is no doubt that poverty, health, and development of a particular country has a significant effect on its economics, politics, and social issues. The question is to what extent does poverty, health, and development affect these issues? Lets compare two individuals: one in a developed country and one in a developing country. It is known that individuals living in developed countries are less likely to be living in poverty and have a somewhat consistent health care services--resulting in a overall healthier individual that can contribute to the country's development ultimately enhancing the economy, politics, and bettering social issues. However, an individual living in a developing country is more likely to be living in poverty, may not have access to health care (let alone clean water--from the video)--this type of individual will not be able to contribute to their country's development as much as a healthier individual. The health of a country's citizens does, to some extent, predict the development, economy, politics, and social issues. Healthier people tend to be more productive and proactive about their environment, and will thus work toward making the country more developed. As a developed country, it is our job to help developing countries obtain the basics: clean water/sanitation, primary education, maternal/child health care, etc. These basic necessities will better the overall health of citizens and thus will provide them the energy/motivation to work towards developing their country.

Continuous Growth

The current economies of developed country is on a path of continuous growth. Since the most important economic measure is GNP, each country exhausts its resources to reach to compete with other consumer countries. This leads to the abuse of natural resources, fossil fuels, and environmental pollution. The more that each country tries to build itself up, is the more that each country is taking from the poorer countries of the world. This growth contributes to the destruction of the environment, the poverty in third world countries, and the failing health worldwide.

The constant removal of resources from already struggling countries leaves them even hungrier. The destruction of the environment contributes to the lack of water sources and open field needed by many to survive.

6 degrees to Kevin Bacon

Poverty, health and development have huge influences on political, social and economic issues on a global scale. In our modern world, technology enables countries thousands of miles apart to connect, share ideas, form and sustain relationships and, of course, do business. I saw a story on NBC news one night about companies in India that provide receptionist services to people overseas. An average joe, like you and I, and maybe Dr. Stevens, can hire a virtual assistant for a mere $30 a month. We would be able to call this assistant a negotiated number of times a week to research the best options for dinner for a first date or research directions to a few destinations on a travel itinerary - thus, enabling us make better use our time.

Now, you might be wondering, does this guy have a point coming up? Yes, actually, I think I do...

The point I am trying to make is that it is almost impossible for one country to be completely isolated from another. There will always be some sort of collaboration, ideally, a mutually beneficial one, that connects at least two countries together. Therefore, I believe that political, social and economic policies resulting from the particular country's poverty, health and development not only impacts that particular country, but all other countries that have connections with that country. And if we can recall how social networks function, or the whole 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon piece, we can see that if Country A is severely limited by poverty and limited productivity, countries that are directly involved with Country A would also take a hit and continue the domino effect down the line. Thus, I believe that individual countries should start including social determinants of health into their health policies, because, as Ara said, a country's economic development is intertwined with the health of its population.

For those who read through to this point on my blog, I would like to reward your commitment and zeal with a funny video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_t44siFyb4

Economic Policy = Health Policy

Economics and health initiatives are interdependent. The role that each has on the socio-economic and socio-cultural factors integrated within social solidarity is indisputable. I'd like to illustrate this relationship in terms of labor productivity, labor supply, education, and savings/investment.

Individuals with healthier physical and mental health are more likely to increase productivity, efficiency, and adaptability to new workplace settings.

In turn, with a lack of sustainable health, individuals will have reduced wages, and thereby a lower incentive for work productivity. Thereby, the labor supply is affected.

Furthermore, individuals with more sustainable health are more likely to pursue higher education and attain transferable skills into the workforce. On the other hand, individuals in poor health are more likely to increase absenteeism rates and thereby impede the progression toward a more economically productive society.

Lastly, putting all these factors into consideration, health of a population will not only influence the determinants toward income distribution, but also the likelihood of the population to consume, invest, and save their earnings. Source for more information: World health organization, "Dying too young" publication

Cumulatively, this has various impacts on:

- The GDP
- The macro-allocation of resources to health care
- Opportunity costs
- Socio-political dynamics encompassing the prioritization of accessibility& affordability of health
services
- Social solidarity and cohesion toward the commonality of building social capital

Health experts, economists and international development advocates cite the inseparable link between poor health, poverty and under-development. Global health has increasingly moved to the forefront of the international development agenda since the UN Secretary General commissioned the Millennium Project in 2002. How do you think that the cycle of poverty, health and development affects political, social, and economic issues on a global scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReRx12QUv54