4. Poor health undermines development
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Poverty leads to ill-health, but possibly ultimately more debilitating is the negative impact of poor health on development. Malaria alone is estimated to have slowed economic growth in Africa by up to 1.3% each year and HIV/AIDS by up to 2.6% in high prevalence countries. These percentages translate into billions of dollars. When the consequences of the high burden of other preventable diseases and lack of effective care are added, the result translates into hundreds of billions of dollars. Considering what an annual investment of hundreds of billions of dollars would have on life in poorer countries succinctly illustrates how investments in health and health care are productive, and not simply consumptive - as some are prone to think - with more than tangible returns.
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Good health enhances development through multiple pathways. This includes survival of trained labour, higher productivity among healthier workers, higher rates of savings and investment, greater enterprise and agrarian productivity and increased direct foreign investment and tourism. Children’s educational attainment is higher, which ultimately enhances productivity, lowers rates of fertility and changes the dependency ratio. In short, health is a positive economic asset for countries.
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Ill-health exacerbates poverty at the family level. The most visible impact is a catastrophic illness or injury which, in the absence of an effective public health service or pre-payment system, can lead to a debt trap that impoverishes families for years, driving ill-health in the entire family through mechanisms such as malnutrition. This in turn undermines the potential of families for development.
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