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Abstract The Millennium Development Goals depend critically on scaling up public health investments in developing countries. As a matter of urgency, developing-country governments must present detailed investment plans that are sufficiently ambitious to meet the goals, and the plans must be inserted into existing donor processes. Donor countries must keep the promises they have often reiterated of increased assistance, which they can easily afford, to help improve health in the developing countries and ensure stability for the whole world.
Keywords Public health/economics; Delivery of health care/organization and administration; Investments; Financial management; Development; Goals; Advisory committees; Developing countries (source: MeSH, NLM).
Mots clés Santé publique/économie; Délivrance soins/organisation et administration; Investissement; Gestion financière; Développement; Objectif; Comité consultatif; Pays en développement (source: MeSH, INSERM).
Palabras clave Salud pública/economia; Prestacion de atencion de salud/organizacion y administración; Inversiones; Administracion financiera; Desarrollo; Metas; Comités consultivos; Paises en desarrollo (fuente: DeCS, BIREME).
A revolution in public health thinking and practice is under way, as part of a broader campaign to end extreme poverty. There is a growing recognition worldwide that the time has come to fulfill the long-standing pledge to make health services available for all, including the poorest of the poor. Poor countries around the world are taking bold steps to scale up the health services in their countries. They are now looking to the rich countries to hold up their end of the bargain.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the international objectives on poverty reduction adopted by the world community in 2000, provide the broad context for this revolution in thinking and practice. The MDGs place a central focus on public health, in recognition of the fact that improvements in public health are vital not only in their own right but also to break the poverty trap of the worlds poorest economies. A significant number of the MDGs are explicidy about health: reducing the child mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015; reducing the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters by 2015; controlling the great pandemic diseases of aquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), malaria and tuberculosis; giving access to safe drinking-water and sanitation; and alleviating hunger and undernutrition. Moreover, the first MDG - to reduce by half the proportion of the population in extreme poverty (so-called "dollar a day" poverty) by 2015...