Pro-Poor Health, HIV/AIDS & Population Policies and Poverty Reduction Series

The following summary and conclusion are excerpts from the Background Section of this paper.

There is a significant lack of information on the health status of the poorest. More information and greater in-depth understanding is needed on:

• the ill health poverty cycle, its dynamics and causes
• the dynamics of poverty reduction and the elements that trigger poverty reduction, in particular in Health, AIDS and Population (HAP) interventions
• how to identify and target the poor, the poor are not homogeneous and sharp divisions exist (depending on access to land, gender, region, health)
• health status linked to socio-economic status amongst the poorest populations (here the poorest populations refers to poor populations within countries)
• interventions that affect the health status of the poorest and distribution either positively or negatively

The present lack of information leaves policymakers in a weak position to formulate policies and monitor the outcomes of poverty reduction and pro-poor HAP approaches.

Ensuring this type of information and analysis becomes available may require substantial investment in social science research and information systems in partner countries (especially the poorest). This represents an important opportunity for joint approaches at international and at country level.

Conclusions

Poverty reduction and improving the health status of the poorest constitutes a substantial agenda for HAP policy makers, but it also represents an opportunity for increased co-ordination and stronger partnerships.

Identifying priority areas for action and a clearer understanding of many of the issues involved is crucial and will require dialogue and information exchanges involving international partners, country partners and representatives of the poorest themselves.

An essential first step in this process will be the clarification and agreement on the objectives of pro-poor HAP policies and health efforts in poverty reduction.

A substantial amount of work remains to be done on how to identify the poorest, how to measure health outcomes and the difference in health status between the poor and the non poor, on how to target the poorest and on learning what interventions work.

Increased understanding of the process of well-being/poverty and the contributing factors in the processes of poverty has underlined the influence pro-poor HAP policies aimed at improved HAP outcomes can have on the poorest (both at the level of households and populations).

What is less obvious, is how to ensure interventions have a positive impact on the process of poverty reduction. Indeed the understanding of poverty and its link to the health status of the poorest and the interventions will differ substantially amongst populations and areas. An important aspect of the success of future interventions will be the extent to which they succeed in including the poorest in the design and implementation of pro-poor HAP policies through participatory approaches.

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