Converging development actions for health

Poor people cannot improve their health because they

live day by day, and if they get sick they are in trouble

because they have to borrow money and pay interest…

A woman, Tra Vinh, Viet Nam

There are families who don’t eat or drink for three days.

People die of hunger…Ayagan was a good guy.

He could not provide food for his family;

his children cried, and then he shot himself…

An elderly man, Uzbekistan

Poor people often describe ill health in terms of hunger, pain, exclusion, powerlessness, insecurity and fear. Particular diseases are rarely mentioned. Rather, they suffer the consequences of ill health and its destructive effects on their families and communities. Poverty and ill health are inextricably linked. Health services have not sufficiently reached those who need them most. Health systems have failed millions of poor people in the region.

Almost two-thirds of the world’s poor live in Asia and the Pacific. Those living in extreme poverty typically lack access to safe drinking water, nutritious food, education, health information, professional health care, adequate sanitation, decent housing, transportation, and safe and secure employment. Women form a substantial majority of those who suffer extreme deprivation.

The ESCAP region faces a double burden of major public health challenges: the increase in non-communicable diseases in poor countries and among poor populations, in the face of the familiar but unfinished agenda of infectious diseases. The shift from infectious diseases to chronic non-communicable diseases – health transition - is due to a combination of demographic, work pattern and lifestyle changes associated with socioeconomic development.

Social, economic and environmental factors determine mental and physical well-being. Social justice and stability, gender equality, food, income and education are prerequisites for health. Across the region, the forces of globalization are shaping people’s health. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) highlight the importance of health in the global development agenda. 3 of the 8 MDGs (reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) are explicitly health-related. Achievement of those MDGs is closely linked with progress on other MDGs for poverty reduction, gender equality, environmental sustainability and partnership building. The MDGs underscore the centrality of health in development, and not only as an outcome of development.

Act Now! For health & sustainable development, we need:
	Diverse development sectors to address the health implications of their actions
	Partnerships based on mutual commitment to health as a basic human right
	Civil society participation in local surveillance of health concerns, and health-related policy development and implementation

To access the meeting documents and the programme, please follow the link below:

Programme and Papers