A drastic scaling up of investments in health for the world’s poor will not only save millions of lives but also produce enormous economic gains, say experts in a landmark Report presented to the World Health Organization (WHO). A group of leading economists and health experts maintain that, by 2015–2020, increased health investments of $66 billion per year above current spending will generate at least $360 billion annually. About half of this will be as a result of direct economic benefits: the world’s poorest people will live longer, have many more days of good health and, as a result, will be able to earn more. The other half will be as a consequence of the indirect economic benefits from this greater individual productivity. It will mean a total economic gain of at least US $360 billion per year – a six-fold return on the investment. To achieve this, the experts state that a dramatic increase in resources for health over the next few years is needed. About half of the total increase would have to come from international development assistance, while developing countries would provide the other half by re-prioritizing their budgets. A drastic scaling up of investments in health for the world’s poor will not only save millions of lives but also produce enormous economic gains, say experts in a landmark Report presented to the World Health Organization (WHO). A group of leading economists and health experts maintain that, by 2015–2020, increased health investments of $66 billion per year above current spending will generate at least $360 billion annually. About half of this will be as a result of direct economic benefits: the world’s poorest people will live longer, have many more days of good health and, as a result, will be able to earn more. The other half will be as a consequence of the indirect economic benefits from this greater individual productivity. It will mean a total economic gain of at least US $360 billion per year – a six-fold return on the investment. To achieve this, the experts state that a dramatic increase in resources for health over the next few years is needed. About half of the total increase would have to come from international development assistance, while developing countries would provide the other half by re-prioritizing their budgets. "With bold decisions in 2002, the world could initiate a partnership between rich and poor of unrivalled significance, offering the gift of life itself to millions of the world’s dispossessed and proving to all doubters that globalization can indeed work to the benefit of all humankind," the 18 members of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health write in a joint foreword to their Report. The investment plan, they conclude, is needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals for health agreed by the international community at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in September 2000....