Health and Development Module

International Development and Health Module

Hilary Term 2010

Scope of the Course

This module aims to situate health in its wider social, economic and political context and provide a basic understanding of the relationship between development processes and health. We begin by outlining the main theories relating health and development which will be elaborated and substantiated in subsequent lectures. This will be followed by an introduction to the evolution of development theory and a more in depth examination of the multidimensionality of poverty and Amartya Sen’s capability approach. After laying such groundwork, we will explore the implicit and political nature of policy processes in relation to health, the key challenges of global health governance today, the local response to international aid, and an introduction to social institutions and collective action. We will then examine subjective and local perspectives on health to broaden our understanding of what health could mean to those whose health we are trying to improve. The second half of the course will provide examples of how transitions have and are occurring. We will begin by illustrating the historical and contemporary evidence of health transitions and the intended as well as unintended impact development processes have had (and are having) on health. We will discuss the epidemiological and nutrition consequences of economic growth before exploring the issues of inequality and environment as they relate to development and health. We will end with a discussion of the political nature of famine and an examination of how natural disasters and conflict can disrupt development and affect health. The last session will be devoted to group case presentations prepared by the student groups. The case presentations will be evaluated by a panel of experts.

Overall, the course aims to:

· Provide a basic understanding of the theories relating development and health

· Demonstrate the implicit and political nature of policy processes and their relevance to the relationship between development and health

· Illustrate the mechanisms (intended and unintended) whereby development processes affect health (positively or negatively)

Contact Information:

The moderator is Proochista Ariana ()

You may also seek advice by email from any of the guest lecturers:

• Frances Stewart (Oxford Department of International Development, Director of Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity)

• Sabina Alkire (Oxford Department of International Development, Director of Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative)

• Devi Sridhar (Director of GEG’s Global Health Project, Dept of Politics & Fellow at All Souls College)

• Masooda Bano (ESRC/AHRC Research Fellow, Oxford Department of International Development)

• Laura Camfield (Child Research Coordinator for Young Lives, Oxford Department of International Development)

• Ernest Guevarra (Consultant, Valid International),

Biographies of Lecturers:

Prof. Frances Stewart is Professor of Development Economics and Director of the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE) and Fellow of Somerville College at the University of Oxford. Prof. Stewart was Director of Oxford Department of International Development from 1993-2003. She is a development economist whose books include Adjustment with a Human Face (with GA Cornia and R Jolly, OUP 1987), War and Underdevelopment: The Economic and Social Consequences of Conflict (with V FitzGerald and colleagues, OUP 2000). She was a Board member and Vice-Chairman of the International Food Policy Research Institute, and is Overseer of the Thomas Watson Institute, Brown University. She has been a major consultant to the UNDP and the Human Development Report from its inception and is currently President of the Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA). Her chief research interests at present are the nature and cause of Human Development and poverty, and intersections between inequality, ethnicity and human security.

Dr. Sabina Alkire is Director of the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at Oxford Department of International Development. Her publications include Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction, and numerous articles. Her research interests include value judgements in economic decision-making, the conceptualization and measurement of individual agency freedoms (empowerment) particularly in South Asia, and further development of the capability approach. Previously she worked for the Commission on Human Security, the World Bank, and Oxfam and the Asia Foundation in Pakistan.

Dr. Devi Sridhar is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics at All Souls College, Oxford. She also directs the Global Economic Governance’s Global Health Project and is a Senior Research Associate at Oxford's Centre for International Studies. She has worked with a number of UN agencies, civil society organisations and Ministries of Health in emerging and developing countries.

Dr. Masooda Bano currently holds an ESRC/AHRC Ideas and Beliefs Fellowship at Oxford Department of International Development. Her primary area of interest rests in studying the role of ideas and beliefs in development processes and their evolution and change. Particular emphasis is on understanding the dynamic interplay between material and psycho-social incentives and its consequences for individual choices and collective development outcome. Her areas of research include: Role of ideas/beliefs in development, incentive structures, informal institutions, institutional change, gender, education, and aid effectiveness.

Dr. Laura Camfield is the Child Research Coordinator for the Young Lives Programme at the Oxford Department of International Development. Her research focuses on experiences of poverty, resilience, and methodologies for exploring and measuring subjective wellbeing in developing countries. She was a research fellow with the Wellbeing in Developing Countries Group from 2002-2007 and coordinated their research in Thailand. Laura’s work at Young Lives focuses on the theme of 'Risk, Protective Processes, and Wellbeing'. She is responsible for coordinating research with the qualitative research teams in Ethiopia and Vietnam. Laura has expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches on health and illness.

Dr. Ernest Guevarra is a physician by training with extensive experience as a community doctor and public health practitioner in marginalised communities. In addition to being a clinician, Ernest has worked in the context of a variety of humanitarian emergencies in the Philippines, Uganda, Somalia and Sri Lanka for the International Rescue Committee, UNICEF and Save the Children UK advising on and implementing programmes in public health, nutrition, psychosocial support, and child protection. Currently, he is an advisor for Valid International where he provides technical support to partner organisations and government agencies on Community-based Therapeutic Care programmes in countries such as Nigeria, Vietnam and Somalia.

Proochista Ariana is a Departmental Lecturer in Global Health Development in the Department of Public Health and the Department of International Development. Her research empirically explores the relationship between development processes and health, as variously defined. She is currently involved with research on the impact of development on indigenous communities in Southern Mexico and health transitions in rural China. She has a Masters in International Health from Harvard and an undergraduate degree in immunology. She has been actively involved in organizing the past three UNDP human development training courses in Oxford and is a member of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) research team. She is also a member of the Health Advisory Committee of the Young Lives project.

Module Timetable

13 Jan 9am-12noon:

Introduction to Theories Relating Health and Development (Proochista Ariana)

The Evolution of Development Theory and Practice (Frances Stewart)

20 Jan 9am-12noon:

Multidimensional Poverty and the Capability Approach (Sabina Alkire)

Capability Approach and Health (Proochista Ariana)

27 Jan 9am-12noon:

The Political Nature of Policy and Policy Processes (Proochista Ariana)

Challenges in Global Health Governance (Devi Sridhar)

3 Feb 9am-12noon:

Aid and Collective Action: The Case of Health (Masooda Bano)

10 Feb 1:30-4:30:

Understanding Health (Laura Camfield)

17 Feb 9am-12noon:

Economic, Epidemiological & Nutritional Transitions (Proochista Ariana)

24 Feb 9am-12noon:

Development, Inequality, and Health (Proochista Ariana)

3 March 9am-12noon:

Development, Environment, and Health (Proochista Ariana)

10 March 9am-12noon:

The Politics of Famine (Ernest Guevarra)

Conflict and Disasters (Ernest Guevarra)

17 March 9am-12noon:

Case Presentations (Working Groups)

****Please note that any changes to scheduling, content and readings will be announced in class and posted on weblearn. Please pay attention to such announcements****

Main Theories Relating Health and Development

To begin the module, this session will summarize the main theories relating development to health. We will use this session to introduce ideas and concepts that will be expanded upon in subsequent sessions and will also touch on concepts that while important in the relationship between health and development will not be covered in the scope of this module. We will then delve into how economic transitions affect health and consider the mechanisms underlying the relationship. We will challenge the pervasive paradigm of wealth as a necessary pre-requisite for health using historical evidence from the West (Mckeown and Szreter) as well as contemporary evidence from countries in transition. The need to better discern the mechanism relating economic growth to health will be highlighted and the implications this has for health and development policies will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

-Understand the main paradigms relating health to development

-the instrumentality of health for development

-the role of development in generating health

-Understand the mechanisms through which economic growth impacts health

-Discern the shortcomings of conventional linkages between wealth and health

-Recognize the policy implications of alternative explanations for the relationship

Required Readings:

Preston, Samuel H. (1975) “The Changing Relation between Mortality and Level of Economic Development” Population Studies 29, 231-48.

Deaton, Angus (2006) “Global Patterns of Income and Health: the facts, interpretations, and policies” WIDER Annual Lecture, Helsinki, September 29th 2006.

McKeown, Thomas (1979) The Role of Medicine: dream, mirage or nemesis? 2nd edition. Oxford Blackwell. Part 2

Szreter, Simon (1999), 'Rapid Economic Growth and 'the four Ds' of Disruption, Deprivation, Disease and Death: Public Health Lessons from Nineteenth-century Britain for Twenty-First-Century China', Tropical Medicine and International Health, 4 (2), 146-52.