Suchergebnisse

Foreign aid is under a microscope because of its potential impact and, in some cases, the harm it has brought. Donor countries, which do not want simply to give money away; recipient countries, which need to make the most of what they have and get; and analysts, policymakers, and writers are all scrutinizing how much is spent and where it goes. But aid is only a small part of what developing country governments spend. Their own resources finance 80 percent or more of health and education spending except in the most aid-dependent countries. Lives in the Balance investigates a vital aspect of this landscape--how best to ensure that public spending, aid money, gets to the right destination

High fertility strains budgets of poor families, reducing available resources to feed, educate, & provide health care to children. Conversely, many characteristics of poverty contribute to high fertility -- high infant mortality, lack of education for women, too little family income to "invest" in children, inequitable shares in national income, & inaccessibility of family planning. Experience in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Colombia, Korea, Sri Lanka, Cuba, & Costa Rica shows, however, that fertility can fall rapidly in low-income groups when health care, education, & family planning services are made widely available. It appears that adequate delivery & targeting of these services, primarily by governments, a key to breaking the nexus between poverty & high fertility, & to reducing the negative effects of both on the lives & prospects of children. 2 Tables, 82 References. HA

Over the past twenty years, many low- and middle-income countries have experimented with health insurance options. While their plans have varied widely in scale and ambition, their goals are the same: to make health services more affordable through the use of public subsidies while also moving care providers partially or fully into competitive markets. Until now, however, we have known little about the actual effects of these dramatic policy changes. Understanding the impact of health insurance-based care is key to the public policy debate of whether to extend insurance to low-income populatio

SummaryA survey of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of 1298 Filipino health professionals towards breast-feeding is analysed. Knowledge of the benefits of breast-feeding, the psychophysiology of lactation, contraindications to breast-feeding, and the effects of drugs and contraceptives on lactation and delivery are some of the issues examined. A low level of knowledge about breast-feeding, particularly of health contraindications, is found. Industry and government programmes have both positive and negative effects on breast-feeding knowledge and attitudes.