The Relation of the New International Economic Order to Health

Abstract

Despite national independence hunger illiteracy the extremes of ill health and other manifestations of poverty continue for the bulk of the population of most 3rd world countries. Additionally the countries of the 3rd world remain heavily dependent upon economic and political decisions made in Europe and North America. It is estimated that about 2/3 of the worlds people are poor and that 1/4 live in absolute poverty or destitution. In regard to mortality the single most striking fact is that despite the massive economic growth and technological progress of the post World War 2 period the same basic complex of infectious parasitic and respiratory diseases compounded by nutritional deficiencies remain responsible for most of the worlds deaths. From the end of World War 2 until the late 1960s the solution to 3rd world underdevelopment was seen to lie in a relatively rapid growth of national product. "Nonproductive" expenditures such as those for health were to be limited to the greatest degree possible and in practice they always were. The 1950s and 1960s were relatively successful in terms of economic development. During this period little attention was given to the question of the distribution of this growth both between and within countries. A most important change of this period was the rapid growth of populations mostly because of falling infant and child mortality rates. The decline was generally argued to be because of public health measures such as the international smallpox and malaria campaigns the increasing availability of supplies of clean water and improved nutritonal status. By the middle and the late 1960s there was increasing disillusionment with "growthmanship" as the appropriate development model and during the 1970s the strategy became that of meeting basic needs (BN) of the worlds population. Most 3rd world countries maintain that a new international economic order (NIEO) is intimately linked to their own potential for fulfilling a well rounded development strategy leading to the satisfaction of the basic needs of their populations. The debate about the relationships between basic needs and the NIEO is now almost a decade old. The basic premise of the link between the NIEO and health is that increased wealth leads to or is correlated with improved mortality and morbidity indices. This is the case in any event over the medium to longer term but in the shorter to medium term there may not be a correlation between improved health standards and wealth. Countries which have persistently demanded the establishment of the NIEO have committed themselves to basic changes in the approach to health development in their own countries. It is appropriate that all those concerned with international health issues offer support to the NIEO recognizing it as a major instrument of health development. Additionally it is appropriate to give support to the better utilization of health sector resources in ways that are consistent with the goals of health for all by the year 2000.