HEALTH POLICY FOR THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Investment in health constitutes an important component of investment in human capital. The state of health which is considered a stock, depreciates over time and at an increasing rate in later life. Investments in health would broadly include child care, nutrition, clothing, housing, medical services, and the use of one’s own time. “Healthy time” or “sickness-free time” contributes towards work, consumption and leisure activities.

The most important advance in population quality has been the increase in life span of people in low income countries. This reveals improvements in health. Since about 1950, life expectancy at birth has increased 10 percent or more in many LDCs. People of Western Europe and North America never attained so large an increase in life expectancy in so short a period. In India life expectancy at birth of males rose by 43 percent and that of females by 41 percent from 1951 to 1971.

Longer life spans provide additional incentives to acquire more education as investments in future earnings. The additional health capital and other forms of human capital tend to increase the productivity of the workers. Longer life spans result in more years of participation in the labour force and reduces “sick” time. Better health of workers in turn leads to more productivity per man hour at work.

Poverty is the major cause of disease in developing countries and more needs to be done than simple provision of medical facilities to improve health conditions. Reduction in poverty is to be seen as an overall objective of all general development and health policies in these countries. Health policies must be related much more to the environment and to the ecological, cultural and nutritional situation. Health programmes have been biased toward a small section of the urban population, which needs to be changed. Also, treatments should be widespread and ‘preventive’ rather than being ‘curative’.

Malnourishment is a major development problem. The interaction of malnourishment and infection has a far more serious effect on individuals than the combined effect of the two working independently. Consequently, the effects of nutrition actions and health programmes undertaken simultaneously are greater than the sum of their effects on the same populations would be if the actions were undertaken separately. Since integration of nutrition with health services is a particularly efficient way of using limited resources, improved nutrition should be considered an explicit objective in all relevant health work.

Substantial efforts are called forth on the part of governments and other development institutions towards addressing the health challenges being faced by the developing countries. Assistance agencies should emphasize food production, but with increased attention to those foods consumed by low-income groups and further support to projects that help to strengthen the purchasing power of the poor. They can also help government bodies fill gaps to their knowledge. Increased emphasis on nutrition is a logical extension of the effort to increase food production and consumption by those who need it. The food-health policy approach can complement and broaden other work of development-assistance agencies.