Social and economic research in the UNDP/World Bank/WHO special programme for research and training in tropical diseases

Abstract

The need to improve the design and application of tropical disease control measures has led to the establishment of a Social and Economic Research Scientific Working Group in the UNDP/World Bank WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. This group will support research to increase the effectiveness of disease control activities and to improve the bases for research resource allocation decisions. Specific projects will be sought to identify human attitudes and behaviour affecting disease transmission, analyze social and economic factors of disease causation, to estimate costs and effectiveness of disease control measures, and. based on these prior studies, to develop management strategies for disease control programmes. The development of management methods to minimize the adverse health consequences of economic development projects is also of interest. Guidelines to assess the social and economic consequences of the tropical diseases are being developed as the first phase of providing a more objective basis for allocating resources to tropical disease control. Special effort is given to developing collaborative research projects among medical and social scientists from countries where tropical diseases are present.