Frameworks of analysis for looking at health and the very poor
Health and poverty linkages: perspectives of the chronically poor
Tackling ill health: a poverty reduction strategy
Authors:
U. Grant
Publisher:
Department for International Development Health Systems Resource Centre , 2005
This paper from the DFID Health Systems Resource Centre maps out the linkages between ill health and chronic or long-term poverty, drawing from perspectives of the poor. It identifies factors that underpin a descent into chronic poverty, including the type, nature and timing of health shocks, who is primarily affected, types of households, and costs of treatment. It then looks at coping strategies such as the sale of assets, which can increase vulnerability. Finally, the paper identifies points in the downward spiral of ill health and poverty at which intervention will most likely make a difference.
The authors stress that advances in health will impact positively on other forms of deprivation. The response to ill-health should therefore be seen both in terms of medical components and as part of the wider socio-economic and political response to poverty reduction. The paper concludes that interventions are required to reduce barriers to adequate food and asset building, alongside quality and timely health care. It recommends continued support for a number of well-recognised priorities for health services, such as maternal and child health, in addition to a number of potentially new priority areas, including: mental health, curative services for main household earners, and regulation of predatory private sector health providers. [adapted from authors]
