Burundian state hospitals are reported to routinely detain patients who are unable to pay their hospital bills, the Human Rights Watch and the Burundian Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons said in a report released in September. The patients can be detained for weeks or even months in abysmal conditions. This practice is reported to highlight broader problems of the health system in Burundi, where patients have to pay for their own treatment. The organisations called on the Burundian government to end the practice and to make access to health care for all Burundians a central part of its new Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
Poverty and health
Burundi: Hospital officials detain hundreds of insolvent patients
Human Rights Watch, 7 September 2006
Causing hunger: An overview of the food crisis in Africa
Oxfam Briefing Paper 91, July 2006
For people to be hungry in Africa in the 21st century is neither inevitable nor morally acceptable. The world’s emergency response requires an overhaul so that it delivers prompt, equitable, and effective assistance to people suffering from lack of food. More fundamentally, governments need to tackle the root causes of hunger, which include poverty, agricultural mismanagement, conflict, unfair trade rules, and the unprecedented problems of HIV/AIDS and climate change. The promised joint effort of African governments and donors to eradicate poverty must deliver pro-poor rural policies that prioritise the needs of marginalised rural groups such as small-holders, pastoralists, and women.
Report reveals global slum crisis
BBC News International, 16 June 2006
Slum-dwellers who make up a third of the world's urban population often live no better, if not worse, than rural people, a United Nations report says. Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Habitat agency, urged governments and donors to take more seriously the problems of at least a billion people. The report provides an overview of different countries across the world, and highlights the relevance of this growing problem; for example, with respect to the health of these communities.
Rethinking the economic costs of malaria at the household level: Evidence from applying a new analytical framework in rural Kenya
Chuma JM, Thiede M, Molyneux CS: Malaria Journal 5:76, 31 August 2006
Malaria imposes significant costs on households and the poor are disproportionately affected. However, cost data are often from quantitative surveys with a fixed recall period. They do not capture costs that unfold slowly over time, or seasonal variations. Few studies investigate the different pathways through which malaria contributes towards poverty. In this paper, a framework indicating the complex links between malaria, poverty and vulnerability at the household level is developed and applied using data from rural Kenya.
Reaching the poor with health, nutrition and population services: What works, what doesn't and why?
Gwatkin D, Wagstaff A, Yazbeck A: The World Bank, December 2005
This 350-page volume features eleven of the "Reaching the Poor Programme"-commissioned studies, along with introductory chapters explaining why the studies were undertaken, how they were done, and what they found. The book marshals the available evidence about pro-poor strategies that have proven to be effective and that can help in the development of programs to better assist disadvantaged groups. In doing so, it can serve as a resource for policy makers, development practitioners, and policy analysts concerned with health conditions among the poor.
Poor communities need better municipal management - HSRC review
South Africa Local Government briefing, July 2006
The free basic water policy is being unevenly implemented and greater attention needs to be given to meeting the needs of the rural poor and those in poor peri-urban communities who would most benefit from its provision, concludes an HSRC report which examines the extent to which the response to the cholera epidemic of 2000/1 has led to sustained provision of safe water and improved sanitation to the poor. The original report suggests there is a clear relationship between cost recovery, indifferent municipal management leading to interruptions in supply, and vandalism.
Further details: /newsletter/id/31664
Poverty dynamics, violent conflict and convergence in Rwanda
Justino P, Verwimp P: Households in Conflict Network, The Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 5 July 2006
This study examines the impact of the civil war and genocide in 1990s Rwanda on household income and poverty dynamics, particularly the transitory nature of poverty. Main findings of the study include previously land-rich, income non-poor households have fared badly over the decade spanning the conflict - the economic wellbeing and welfare of the surviving household members has deteriorated, and female-headed households have been trapped in poverty - they are more likely to be poor and when poor are less likely to move out of poverty, therefore they should be the prime beneficiaries of development aid.
Nine years, eight goals, no time to waste
Sandrasagra MJ: Inter Press Service News Agency, 12 June 2006
In September 2000, world leaders gathered at the United Nations for the Millennium Assembly promised to halve extreme hunger and poverty, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide universal primary education, all by 2015. The series of targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), also include promoting gender equality, reducing child and maternal mortality, ensuring environmental sustainability and building a global partnership for development. Salil Shetty spoke to IPS about the current status of the MDGs.
Targeting the very poor
Eldis Health Systems Resource Guide
A number of studies have looked at who benefits from public sector funding of health services. Different conclusions are drawn about the best way to reach the very poor, depending on the health system in question, the broader social, economic and political context, and the conceptual and ideological approaches underpinning the studies. A key area of debate concerns the respective benefits of non-targeted strategies, such as provision of universal free health care services, versus specific, targeted strategies for reaching the very poor.
The G8's response to Africa: Is it making a difference?
Intellectual Program Series
A year after the G8 agreements were reached, the question remains: Has anything changed? What has been done thus far? What action has been taken to implement change and how? What do these plans hold for Africa? Will they alleviate the developmental pressures that the African governments and the African people face? Or will they simply diversify the already-apparent symptoms of poverty? This conference proposed to investigate the complex issues surrounding poverty, debt relief, healthcare, and other related matters in Africa in a cross-disciplinary setting.