global health
saudsr66
MuennigSu_Wk02.1_01chap.pptxA Very Brief History of Global Health Policy
Chapter 1
Key Ideas
Global health focuses largely on how policies and social environments affect health outcomes
Industrialization in low income countries poses new threats to human health
Better nutrition and sanitation have reduced infectious disease and increased life expectancy
Global health policies are shaped in part by intergovernmental institutions like the UN
Recent policies have begun to recognize the need for multiple models for development
Transition from Hunter-gatherer Societies to Agrarian Societies
Easier to find food and prevent attack
Social hierarchies introduced
Need for division of labor and governance
Transition from infectious diseases to chronic diseases
Development of immunity and increasingly sedentary lifestyles
Communities require cooperation and collective problem solving
Transition to Industrialization
Creation of new machines and products during the Industrial Revolutions
Medicine, life-saving goods
New capacity, products for building and energy
Concurrent creation of new health risks
Child labor and hazardous working conditions
Water and air pollution
Tobacco expansion
Epidemiology
The study of disease in populations
Disease may be infectious, genetic, environmental
Cross-disciplinary
Epidemiologic transition: infectious disease declines, mortality among young people declines, and life expectancy increases
Leads to increased population size
Trends in Population Health in the 20th Century: Life Expectancy by Country
War & Intergovernmental Institutions
Extreme weaponry and loss of life from World Wars I and II led to intergovernmental regulations and institutions
League of Nations
United Nations (UN)
World Bank
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Global governance was seen as a final solution to humankind’s public health problems
Nation Building
Decolonization
Autonomy
Social institution development
Aid
Absorptive capacity: ability of a nation to effectively use aid provided
Political interference from other nations
The example of Guatemala
Economic & Human Development
Economic development: the growth of national economies
Facilitated by infrastructure projects like dam-building for electricity
Human development (UN Human Development Index: life expectancy, literacy, and standard of living in a nation
Facilitated by investment in schools and institutions that directly benefit the poor
Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)
A set of rules developed by the IMF and the World Bank in the 1980s designed to adjust loan recipient countries’ debt burden so they could pay off loans
Reduced expenditures on schools, health care, government programs; reduced regulations to encourage business; currency devalued
Effects: many recessions, increased poverty, loss of middle class,
Millennium Development Goals
UN’s set of realistic goals to be achieved by 2015:
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality
Reduce child mortality rates
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Develop a global partnership for development
Population Pyramids at Various Stages of Development
