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This blog is maintained by the Growth and Crisis (GC ) Program of the World Bank Institute.

We bring you timely news, resources, tools, ideas and commentaries on issues related to the global economic crisis and growth.

May 2007

Fridays Academy: Health, Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth (V)

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 05/18/2007 - 12:47

 

 

Like every Friday, from Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes on Economic Policies for Poverty Reduction.

 

Development Assistance for Health – DAH

 

The Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (2001) concluded that the level of health spending in low income countries was insufficient to address their health challenges and that a scaling up of financing was needed in tandem with government-wide reform programs targeted towards the functioning and delivery of health services.  Reform should aim to put in place stronger planning processes both within ministries of health and between them and the ministries of finance and planning.  A concerted effort at the national level can in turn be supported by stronger collaboration among development partners providing assistance to various sectors and/or programs.  The international community has an important role to play in supporting health in the development process. 

 

Trends in DAH

Approximately 90 percent of total development assistance for health (DAH) comes from bilateral and multilateral agencies; the European Community (EC); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (GFATM); and grants provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) (Michaud, 2003).   

 

Total DAH from the major sources identified above increased from US$6.4 billion on average between 1997–99 to US$8.1 billion in 2002, an increase of almost a quarter.  The majority of the funds from both the public and private sources went to the GFATM. 

 

IFC-FT Essay Competition

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 05/14/2007 - 07:01

The International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group (IFC) and the Financial Times (FT) have announced their second annual Essay Competition. This year's theme is "Private Sector Development: Creating Markets, Transforming Lives."

 

Awards of  20,000, 10,000 and 5,000 USD up for grabs, and a chance to have your ideas published and maybe put to work.

 

Deadline to apply is September 30.

Submission procedures

 

(Via PSD Blog)

Fridays Academy: Health, Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth (IV)

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 05/11/2007 - 09:27

From Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes on Economic Policies for Poverty Reduction.

 

Life Expectancy

chart1

Source:   World Development Indicators

 

Despite the very real challenge from AIDS, which has undone earlier progress made in health in some regions (exhibit above) the challenges to improve health indicators further are not insurmountable. CMH note that the “epidemiological evidence conveys a crucial message: the vast majority of the excess disease burden is the result of a relatively small number of identifiable conditions, each with a set of existing health interventions that can dramatically improve health and reduce the deaths associated with these conditions”. 

 

Migration and Development Conference, May 23-24, Washington DC

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 05/07/2007 - 15:18

Organized by the World Bank's Migration Group, the OECD Development Centre and the Migration Policy Institute.

 

This two-day conference will provide the space for a dialogue between the external research and policy community to identify critical areas for interventions that enhance the development impact of migration. It will make an explicit effort in identifying policy areas for increased attention and action from international policy institutions.

 

More information.

Registration form.

 

For a less academic analysis of migration, see the recent story in the New York Times Magazine (for members), which looks at this issue from a more personal point of view.

Fridays Academy: Health, Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth (III)

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 05/04/2007 - 11:16

Like every Friday, from Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes on Economic Policies for Poverty Reduction.

 

Evidence from cross-country growth regressions suggests that improvements in health make a large contribution to economic growth, and the initial health of a population has been identified as one of the most robust factors contributing to economic growth as economies adjust over time to their steady-state output level when growth then begins to slow.  Bloom, Canning and Sevilla (2004) found that one extra year of life expectancy raised steady-state GDP per capita by about 4 percent (Bloom, Canning and Jamison, 2004). Each 10 percent improvement in life expectancy at birth is associated with a rise in economic growth of between 0.3 and 0.4 percentage points per year, all other growth factors held constant. This means that the difference in annual growth between a rich country, where life expectancy at birth is around 77 years on average, and a typical poor country, 49 years on average, is about 1.6 percentage points a year that, over time, adds to a substantial effect.  Thus, health status explains part of the difference in growth rates among rich and poor countries, even after controlling for other macroeconomic variables.  Furthermore, Bloom and Sachs (1998) showed that more than half of the growth disparity between Africa and East Asia was statistically explained by disease burden, demography and geography.

 

Development Market Place 2007

Submitted by Ignacio on Thu, 05/03/2007 - 15:21

Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program of the World Bank that funds creative, small-scale development projects that deliver results and have the potential to be expanded or replicated. 

 

One hundred and four project teams from around the world will display their projects and vie for grant funding in the final round of the 2007 Global Development Marketplace competition, May 22-23. The event is open to the public; free registration is open through May 15th.

 

If you are in Washington DC, it is worth having a look. Each year there are a number of inspiring projects among the finalists.

 

(Via PovertyNet)

Understanding Shared Growth - video

Submitted by Ignacio on Tue, 05/01/2007 - 16:40

As part of the PREM (Poverty Reduction and Economic Management) Day, recently organized at the World Bank, Michael Spence, Chairman of the Commission on Growth and Development, chaired a panel on regional case studies. Three World Bank Chief Economists (Pradeep Mitra, Central Asia Region, Mustapha Nabli, Middle East and North Africa, and Guillermo Perry, Latin America and Caribbean)  discussed growth in various parts of the world.

 

Watch the video (90 min)