Measurement Of Poverty Undernutrition And Child Mortality

Although the world has seen a strong increase in global incomes in the last two decades and consequently a decline in global poverty rates, the number of persons living in absolute poverty remains on unacceptably high levels. Besides rising incomes can not distract from the fact that resources to fight global problems remain scarce. These resources have to be devoted to the fight against different global problems like the fight against communicable and non-communicable diseases (especially HIV/AIDS and Malaria) or the fight against global warming. The main precondition to achieve the best results with these limited resources is a good knowledge about the determinants and the best policies to fight each problem. But before being able to analyze the determinants of the different global problems and especially of poverty, it is of fundamental importance to find the right indicators for each phenomenon. This book contributes to the discussion of appropriate poverty indicators for the different dimensions of poverty like income poverty, undernutrition and child mortality and proposes a multidimensional poverty indicator that takes the income distribution into consideration.

A large share of the population in many developing countries suffer from chronic undernutrition. In this book, Professor Svedberg provides a detailed comparative study of undernutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two worst affected areas, and provides crucial advice for all those concerned in development worldwide. The book concentrates on the five challenges that undernutrition creates: what undernutrition is, who the undernourished are, where the undernourished are, when people are undernourished, and why people are undernourished. The book is divided into five parts: Part I introduces the main paradigms and controversies of undernutrition; Part II deals with the relationship in the individual between calorie intake/expenditure, work effort, body weight, and income; Part III assesses the method of defining and measuring undernutrition based on estimates of gaps between calorie intake and calorie requirements for households; Part IV provides a parallel analysis of the main alternative approach to defining and measuring undernutrition, based on anthropometric assessment, mainly of young children, but also adolescents and adults; Part V analyses the consequences and causes of anthropometric failure, as well as the related policy issues.

Hunger and malnutrition are the plight of millions of people, especially in developing countries. This study argues that the lack of a comprehensive measure for nutrition and food security has impeded progress towards eradicating hunger and undernutrition. The author seeks to fill this gap by designing an international Nutrition Index (NI). Using this NI, the study ranks 106 countries and analyses patterns and trends in their nutrition situation. The correlations between the NI and other international indicators show its ability to reflect micronutrient deficiencies as well as its sensitivity to poverty and inequality. Multivariate regressions reveal that the NI tends to improve with economic development and the amelioration of health services, whereas warfare has detrimental effects.

Current data and trends in morbidity and mortality for the sub-Saharan Region as presented in this new edition reflect the heavy toll that HIV/AIDS has had on health indicators, leading to either a stalling or reversal of the gains made, not just for communicable disorders, but for cancers, as well as mental and neurological disorders.

More children born today will survive to adulthood than at any time in history. It is now time to emphasize health and development in middle childhood and adolescence--developmental phases that are critical to health in adulthood and the next generation. Child and Adolescent Health and Development explores the benefits that accrue from sustained and targeted interventions across the first two decades of life. The volume outlines the investment case for effective, costed, and scalable interventions for low-resource settings, emphasizing the cross-sectoral role of education. This evidence base can guide policy makers in prioritizing actions to promote survival, health, cognition, and physical growth throughout childhood and adolescence.

The power of purchasers exposes the weaknesses of conventional thinking on the costs and benefits of priorities. Health policy analysts now have to develop rational criteria to support decisions in a process which may be inherently intuitive. This authoritative and practical text points the way towards clear choices in resource allocation and the implications of these choices on expenditure diverted among different health care programmes.

This book looks at poverty dynamics, or how individual experiences of poverty change over time. It includes work from anthropologists, economists, sociologists, & political scientists & combines qualitative & quantitative research approaches to help us understand of why some people remain poor while others escape.