GG2071: Health and Development

Source: Gates Foundation, CC BY-NC-ND

 Lecture Structure

1. Introduction
2. What is health?
3. Epidemiological transition
4. Health inequalities & inequities
5. Health policies
6. Conclusions & preparation for next week
Introduction
 Development = Health improvements

SDG 3 covers much wider

range of health issues than
MDGs

Sources: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/ and http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

 Human Development Index

Source: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi
 Poor Health Limits Development

36.8 million working days lost (p.3) 6.0 million working days lost (p.8)

Working days lost to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries,
Great Britain, 2020/21
Source: HSE (2022)
COVID-19

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/
grossdomesticproductgdp/articles/
coronavirusandtheimpactonoutputintheukeconomy/
What is
health?
 Definition of ‘good health’

World Health Organization definition: “A state

of complete physical, mental and social well-
being and not merely the absence of disease
or infirmity.”
UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

Article 24, Clause 1:

Indigenous peoples have the
right to their traditional
medicines and to maintain
their health practices,
including the conservation of
their vital medicinal plants,
animals and minerals.
Indigenous individuals also
have the right to access,
without any discrimination, to
all social and health services.
 What causes poor health?

In groups come up with THREE things which cause poor

health.

Write on separate Post-It notes

Importance of aetiology of illnesses

What explanations are there

for particular symptoms?
Epidemiological
Transition
Changing patterns of health
2000: 4 out of top 10 causes of
and disease
death globally due to non-
communicable diseases
Temporal and spatial
dimensions
2019: 7 out of 10
Importance of scale

Source:
https://www.who.int/data/stories/leading-
causes-of-death-and-disability-2000-2019-a-
visual-summary
Water-Borne Diseases e.g. Cholera
 Obesity
You can also split your content
Obesity
 Differences WITHIN countries

Average annual change in percentage overweight in urban and rural areas in 38 countries.
Source: Neuman et al. (2013, p.430)
Average annual change in percentage underweight in urban and rural areas in 38 countries.
Source: Neuman et al. (2013, p.430)
Source: Neuman et al. (2013, p.431)
 4. Health
Inequalities &
Inequities
Review of Preparatory Material

Based on Hazel Barrett’s

chapter in Desai & Potter
(2014):

1. What is the difference

between ‘health inequality’
and ‘health inequity’?
2. What are the causes of
health inequity?
 WHO Commission on Social Determinants
of Health

“Not all health inequalities are unjust or inequitable. If good

health were simply unattainable, this would be unfortunate but
not unjust. Where inequalities in health are avoidable, yet are
not avoided, they are inequitable.” (Marmot, 2007, p. 1154)
 Indigenous Populations

2015 report on health

 Life Expectancy at Birth by World Bank Income Level

Source: Anderson et al. (2016, p.149)

Gender & HIV Infection

“In sub-Saharan Africa, six

in seven new infections
among adolescents
aged15–19 years are in
girls. Girls and young
women aged15–24 years
are twice as likely to be
living with HIV than young
men.”
(UNAIDS, 2022, p.1)
 WHO Health Inequality Monitor

https://www.who.int/data/inequality-monitor
5. Health Policies
 1. Prevention versus cure

Women from a rural Ethiopian village receive free bed nets as part of the largest distribution
campaign in African history, led by UNICEF. (Golo Sodoma, Ethiopia, 2005). Gates Foundation,
CC BY-NC-ND Source: http://www.malaria.com/news/more-than-nets
 2. Poverty Reduction

Water pump, rural Ghana

Source: www.tprf.org
Weaver, Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca
© Katie Willis

Source: www.oxfam.org.uk
 3. Integration of traditional knowledge/ practices

Disinfecting coffin of ebola victim, Congo, August 2018

© John Wessels / AFP - Getty Images file Source: www.nbcnews.com
 4. Education & awareness-raising

AIDS education sign, Sierra Leone. Source: Karin Lindström/Union to Union / Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
 5. Payment Systems

Mulanje Mission Hospital Management Team

Source: Mulanje Mission Hospital website
6. Role of Pharmaceutical Companies
 7. Fiscal policies: Taxation & Subsidies

Source: www.fortune.com
 Conclusions

1.Health is key to many definitions of development and

health status can also contribute to development success/
failure.
2.Need to recognise that definitions of health and aetiology
of disease reflects values and worldviews
3.With increasing economic wealth, the disease burden
changes from communicable to non-communicable diseases
4.Vital to acknowledge social determinants of health and to
address structural issues if want to reduce health inequities
5. Policies to address health concerns reflect development
approaches.
 References not included on Reading List
Anderson, I. et al. (2016) ‘Indigenous and tribal peoples’ health: (The Lancet-Lowitja Institute global
collaboration’, The Lancet, 388 (10040) 9-15 July: 131-57.

Byrne, A. and A. Morgan (2011) ‘How the integration of traditional birth attendants with formal health systems
can increase skilled birth attendance’, International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, 115 (2): 127-34.

Campbell, C. and A. Gibbs (2010) 'Gender, poverty and AIDS: perspectives with particular reference to sub-
Saharan Africa', in Chant, S. (ed.) The international handbook of gender and poverty. Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar, pp. 327-332.

Fraser, A. (2018) ‘Mexico’s “Sugar Tax”: Space, markets, resistance’, Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, 108 (6): 1700-14.

Greig, A., D. Peacock, R. Jewkes and S. Msimang (2008) 'Gender and AIDS: time to act', AIDS, 22 (suppl. 2),
pp. S35-43.
HSE (2022) Health and Safety at Work: Summary Statistics for Great Britain 2022.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh2122.pdf

Manguvo, A. and B. Mafuvadze (2015) ‘The impact of traditional and religious practices on the spread of
Ebola: time for a strategic shift’, The Pan African Medical Journal, 22 (Suppl 1): 9. doi:
10.11694/pamj.supp.2015.22.1.6190
 References not included on Reading List
Marmot, M. (2007) ‘Achieving health equity: from root causes to fair outcomes’, The Lancet, 370 (9593), 29
September – 5 October: 1153-63.

McMillan, M., F. McMillan and S. Rigney (2016) ‘How indigenous nation-building can strengthen indigenous
holistic health outcomes: Retelling the right to health’, Journal of Northern Studies, 10 (2): 147-59.
http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1105946/FULLTEXT01.pdf [Link through Moodle]

Neuman, M., I. Kawachi, S. Gortmaker and S.V. Subramanian (2013) ‘Urban-rural differences in BMI in low-
and middle-income countries: the role of socioeconomic status’, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 97 (2):
428-36.

Sakdapolrak, P., T. Seyler and C. Ergler (2013) ‘Burden of direct and indirect costs of illness: Empirical
findings from slum settlements in Chennai, South India’, Progress in Development Studies, 13(2): 135-51.

United Nations (2015) State of the world’s Indigenous Peoples: Health, New York: United Nations. Available
at: https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/2016/Docs-updates/SOWIP_Health.pdf [Link through
Moodle]

UNAIDS (2022) ‘UNAIDS Factsheet 2022’. Available at:

https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/UNAIDS_FactSheet_en.pdf