For Developing Countries, Health Is Wealth

Lord Chesterfield observed that good health is the first and greatest of all blessings and the first of all liberties. Millions of people in developing countries around the globe lack this blessing and basic freedom. What's more, their poor health both reflects their poverty and contributes to it. Economists have found a strong correlation between better health and faster economic growth--a correlation that holds up even after accounting for other factors that explain national differences in economic progress. Providing adequate health services to the world's poorest citizens could save millions of lives each year, reduce poverty, and promote development. Laudable as this goal is, can it be achieved? A carefully researched report from a World Health Organization commission chaired by Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University--on which I served--concludes that the answer is yes.

A relatively small number of identifiable conditions--such as malaria, tuberculosis, childhood infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal nutritional deficiencies, and HIV/AIDS--are the main causes of illness and high mortality rates in developing countries. For each of these conditions, interventions that can dramatically improve health outcomes already exist. Most such interventions are not technically exacting and can be delivered by local health centers, working with state and private health-care providers and nongovernmental organizations.