TOPIC FIVE
HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
5.1 : INTRODUCTION
In this topic, we discuss the measures of health and development. We also look at the disease
profiles for rich and poor countries and discuss how health and growth are related. We further
discuss how health and poverty are linked focusing on social, political and regional dimensions
of health.
5.2 : TOPIC OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lecture the learner should be able to:
Explain how health and poverty are linked.
Describes effects of growth on health and vice versa
Explain the role of health in development
- Development is the concern of all developing countries. The health planner, manager, etc., is
equally charged with that concern and must be knowledgeable about what development implies
and the role health should play in the development of a given country.
- The following questions are of paramount importance for the health worker in a developing
country such as Kenya:
o what is development?
o How does it differ from economic growth?
o How can development be measured?
1
, o What role does health play in development?
o What role should the health worker play in facilitating development?
o This subsection will be attempting to provide some answers and insights to these
questions.
5.3 Economic Development
- Development has been variously defined. The modern view of development perceives it as
both a physical reality and state of mind in which society has, through some combination of
social, economic and institutional processes, secured the means for obtaining a better life.
- The definition of “a better life” may vary from one society to another.
- Development in all societies, however, must consist of at least the following three objectives:
o To increase the availability, distribution and accessibility of life-sustaining goods
such as food, shelter, health, security and protection to all members of society;
o To raise standards of living, including higher incomes, the provision of more jobs,
better education and better health, and more attention to cultural and humanistic
values so as to enhance not only material well-being, but also to generate greater
individual community and national esteem.
o To expand the range of economic and social opportunities and services to individuals
and communities by freeing them from servitude and dependence on other people
and communities and from ignorance and human misery.
5.3.1 The process of economic development
- The idea of economic development is currently used in two ways:
o to arrange nations and communities on a scale from poor (less developed) to rich
(developed)
o to refer to the process by which poor nations become richer.
2
, - There tends to be a systematic relation between income and other differences which include:
o pattern of production (eg. agriculture is more important in poor countries)
o pattern of trade (eg. poor countries tend to import manufactured goods, export
primary products)
o energy use (eg. poor countries use less non-human energy per head)
o consumption patterns (eg. poor countries spend relatively more on food, little on
consumer durables)
o degree of urbanisation (in poor countries a smaller proportion of the population
lives in towns)
o demography
o health levels and health inputs.
- Many of these differences between countries correspond to changes over time in the history
of present 'developed' countries. Hence economists have built up a model of development as
a process accounting both for the historical experience of developed countries and for present
comparative data (the present rich countries are assumed to have started the process early, the
poor ones late). This process is sometimes seen in terms of 'stages of growth'.
- In the 1950s the driving force for this economic process was seen as investment (growth of
physical capital such as roads, dams and factories).
- This leads to increased output, which in turn makes resources available for further investment
- provided they are not swallowed up by population growth or increased consumption.
- The model was common to 'capitalist' and 'socialist' theories of development.
- The essence of development policy, following this view, is to invest more while holding down
the rate of increase of population and consumption.
- However, events in the 1960s and 1970s made this view of development seem oversimplified
because 'investment' involves not only physical capital but also finance, technology and
3
HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT
5.1 : INTRODUCTION
In this topic, we discuss the measures of health and development. We also look at the disease
profiles for rich and poor countries and discuss how health and growth are related. We further
discuss how health and poverty are linked focusing on social, political and regional dimensions
of health.
5.2 : TOPIC OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lecture the learner should be able to:
Explain how health and poverty are linked.
Describes effects of growth on health and vice versa
Explain the role of health in development
- Development is the concern of all developing countries. The health planner, manager, etc., is
equally charged with that concern and must be knowledgeable about what development implies
and the role health should play in the development of a given country.
- The following questions are of paramount importance for the health worker in a developing
country such as Kenya:
o what is development?
o How does it differ from economic growth?
o How can development be measured?
1
, o What role does health play in development?
o What role should the health worker play in facilitating development?
o This subsection will be attempting to provide some answers and insights to these
questions.
5.3 Economic Development
- Development has been variously defined. The modern view of development perceives it as
both a physical reality and state of mind in which society has, through some combination of
social, economic and institutional processes, secured the means for obtaining a better life.
- The definition of “a better life” may vary from one society to another.
- Development in all societies, however, must consist of at least the following three objectives:
o To increase the availability, distribution and accessibility of life-sustaining goods
such as food, shelter, health, security and protection to all members of society;
o To raise standards of living, including higher incomes, the provision of more jobs,
better education and better health, and more attention to cultural and humanistic
values so as to enhance not only material well-being, but also to generate greater
individual community and national esteem.
o To expand the range of economic and social opportunities and services to individuals
and communities by freeing them from servitude and dependence on other people
and communities and from ignorance and human misery.
5.3.1 The process of economic development
- The idea of economic development is currently used in two ways:
o to arrange nations and communities on a scale from poor (less developed) to rich
(developed)
o to refer to the process by which poor nations become richer.
2
, - There tends to be a systematic relation between income and other differences which include:
o pattern of production (eg. agriculture is more important in poor countries)
o pattern of trade (eg. poor countries tend to import manufactured goods, export
primary products)
o energy use (eg. poor countries use less non-human energy per head)
o consumption patterns (eg. poor countries spend relatively more on food, little on
consumer durables)
o degree of urbanisation (in poor countries a smaller proportion of the population
lives in towns)
o demography
o health levels and health inputs.
- Many of these differences between countries correspond to changes over time in the history
of present 'developed' countries. Hence economists have built up a model of development as
a process accounting both for the historical experience of developed countries and for present
comparative data (the present rich countries are assumed to have started the process early, the
poor ones late). This process is sometimes seen in terms of 'stages of growth'.
- In the 1950s the driving force for this economic process was seen as investment (growth of
physical capital such as roads, dams and factories).
- This leads to increased output, which in turn makes resources available for further investment
- provided they are not swallowed up by population growth or increased consumption.
- The model was common to 'capitalist' and 'socialist' theories of development.
- The essence of development policy, following this view, is to invest more while holding down
the rate of increase of population and consumption.
- However, events in the 1960s and 1970s made this view of development seem oversimplified
because 'investment' involves not only physical capital but also finance, technology and
3
