Progress Toward the Health MDGs : Are the Poor Being Left Behind?

Wagstaff, Adam ; Bredenkamp, Caryn ; Buisman, Leander R.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABSOLUTE INEQUALITY;    ABSOLUTE TERMS;    ABSOLUTE VALUE;    ABSOLUTE ­;    INEQUALITY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6894
RP-ID  :  WPS6894

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper looks at differentialprogress on the health Millennium Development Goals betweenthe poor and better-off within countries. The findings arebased on original analysis of 235 Demographic and HealthSurveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, spanning 64developing countries over the period 1990-2011. Five healthstatus indicators and seven intervention indicators aretracked for all the health Millennium Development Goals. Inmost countries, the poorest 40 percent have made fasterprogress than the richest 60 percent. On average, relativeinequality in the Millennium Development Goal indicators hasbeen falling. However, the opposite is true in a sizableminority of countries, especially on child health statusindicators (40-50 percent in the cases of child malnutritionand mortality), and on some intervention indicators (almost40 percent in the case of immunizations). Absoluteinequality has been rising in a larger fraction of countriesand in around one-quarter of countries, the poorest 40percent have been slipping backward in absolute terms.Despite reductions in most countries, relative inequalitiesin the Millennium Development Goal health indicators arestill appreciable, with the poor facing higher risks ofmalnutrition and death in childhood and lower odds ofreceiving key health interventions.