The case for focusing on the very poor

Basic services for the poorest argues that the provision of effective basic services (i.e. health and other key services) can interrupt the processes that maintain and worsen poverty. Arguments for targeting the poorest include the following:

• achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Some MDGs will not be achieved unless the poorest are reached. Other MDGs will be achieved, either fully or partially, by excluding the very poor. However, exclusion will have the effect of worsening and deepening the poverty of those left behind
• moral case: Access to basic services is a basic human right. Denying access would be contrary to international and national human rights commitments
• political and economic security: Political and economic stability may be undermined if the very poor are denied access to basic services.

Improving the health of the world's poorest people argues that greater efforts can be made to re-orient public health interventions so that they better meet the needs of the poor and vulnerable groups.
In contrast, International perspectives on health inequalities and policy  argues that, while it is important to target 'the poor' , a large minority or even majority of the population live in poverty in low-income countries.

Consequently, better health conditions and health systems are a condition for economic growth, but it is not sufficient. This article suggests that a strategy to improve health and welfare may be to first combine economic growth to allow accumulation of wealth and then invest in social policies on health and welfare.