Progress Toward the Health MDGs : Are the Poor Being Left Behind?
This paper looks at differential progress on the health Millennium Development Goals between the poor and better-off within countries. The findings are based on original analysis of 235 Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/05/19581319/progress-toward-health-mdgs-poor-being-left-behind http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18792 |
| Summary: | This paper looks at differential
progress on the health Millennium Development Goals between
the poor and better-off within countries. The findings are
based on original analysis of 235 Demographic and Health
Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, spanning 64
developing countries over the period 1990-2011. Five health
status indicators and seven intervention indicators are
tracked for all the health Millennium Development Goals. In
most countries, the poorest 40 percent have made faster
progress than the richest 60 percent. On average, relative
inequality in the Millennium Development Goal indicators has
been falling. However, the opposite is true in a sizable
minority of countries, especially on child health status
indicators (40-50 percent in the cases of child malnutrition
and mortality), and on some intervention indicators (almost
40 percent in the case of immunizations). Absolute
inequality has been rising in a larger fraction of countries
and in around one-quarter of countries, the poorest 40
percent have been slipping backward in absolute terms.
Despite reductions in most countries, relative inequalities
in the Millennium Development Goal health indicators are
still appreciable, with the poor facing higher risks of
malnutrition and death in childhood and lower odds of
receiving key health interventions. |
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