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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1983

Plundering the poor: the role of the World Bank in the Third World.

The World Bank, the most important so-called development assistance agency, annually dispenses billions of dollars to Third World governments, ostensibly to "develop" their economics through a variety of loan projects. But even a superficial analysis reveals that the Bank is the perfect mechanism to help (i.e., subsidize) the large transnational corporations from the industrial countries to expand their industrial, commercial, and financial activities in the Third World, at the expense of the latter and particularly at the expense of the rural and urban proletariat. This article discusses Cheryl Payer's recent book, The World Bank: A Critical Analysis, in which she analyzes the Bank's role in the Third World and sets forth the major reasons why poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, as well as unemployment, and all the adverse social phenomena associated with them, are on the increase.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed2000

The World Bank and pharmaceuticals.

Within less than a decade the World Bank has become the largest single source of finance (loans) for health in low and middle income countries as well as a major player in the field of pharmaceuticals. Often 20-50% of the recurrent government health budget in developing countries is used to procure drugs. Drugs are among the most salient and cost-effective elements of health care and often a key factor for the success of a health sector reform. However, pharmaceuticals are frequently being used irrationally, mainly due to market imperfections in health care, such as information asymmetries, leading to serious health problems and a heavy financial burden on the health system. Lending priorities set by the World Bank could be used to promote public health sector reform, leading to the rational use of affordable and available drugs of good quality in developing countries. This report provides the first analysis of World Bank activity in the pharmaceutical sector worldwide. The analysis of 77 staff appraisal reports, describing the planning phase of World Bank country projects, shows that 16% of the total World Bank health, nutrition and population budget, or approximately US$1.3 billion, has been committed to loans or credits supporting pharmaceutical activities in the programme countries between 1989-95. Roughly US$1.05 billion has been committed to procurement of drugs and medical equipment. Only 5% of the total pharmaceutical sector lending is committed to software components such as drug policy work and rational use of drugs. No more than 45% of the projects were developed in collaboration with pharmaceutical expertise. The World Bank is recommended to improve its pharmaceutical sector involvement by promoting drug policy research and development including national and international dialogue on pharmaceutical issues to ensure rational use of both drugs and loans. In this, the World Bank has an advantage given its experience from working with both the private and the public sector, its in-house expertise in health economics, and lastly its ability to be listened to by governments through its power.

Data Interpretation, Statistical↗
PubMed2005

The changing role of the World Bank in global health.

The World Bank began operations on June 25, 1946. Although it was established to finance European reconstruction after World War II, the bank today is a considerable force in the health, nutrition, and population (HNP) sector in developing countries. Indeed, it has evolved from having virtually no presence in global health to being the world's largest financial contributor to health-related projects, now committing more than $1 billion annually for new HNP projects. It is also one of the world's largest supporters in the fight against HIV/AIDS, with commitments of more than $1.6 billion over the past several years. I have mapped this transformation in the World Bank's role in global health, illustrating shifts in the bank's mission and financial orientation, as well as the broader changes in development theory and practice. Through a deepened understanding of the complexities of development, the World Bank now regards investments in HNP programs as fundamental to its role in the global economy.

Global Health↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[An agenda to debate: the World Bank report Investing in Health].

The 1993 World Bank Development Report analyzes the world health situation from an economic perspective. In spite of the fact that many of the discussed topics are controversial, the report accomplishes an interesting review of different health and socioeconomic indicators. The experts of WHO and the World Bank elaborated a new measurement of the global burden of disease, the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). It's an indicator that summarizes the health status of a population, combining mortality, morbidity and disability data. We think that the development of this new indicator is the most novel and positive aspect of the report. This indicator stimulates comparisons between countries and facilitates decision making processes in the health field. The present work summarizes and analyses the most interesting and controversial aspects of the World Bank Development Report.

Financing, Organized↗
PubMed2006

Analysis of the World Bank's pharmaceutical lending.

This article analyzes the World Bank's lending activity on pharmaceuticals and medical products (PMP) during the fiscal years (FY) 1999-2001 by regions, borrower and supplier country, and procurement method. Data for the study derived from the World Bank Project and the Business Warehouse databases. The information included all Bank projects approved during the study period. Information for the PMP procurement contracts was extracted for the health sector components of all sector projects awarded. Contract dollar amount was aggregated by borrower and supplier countries. A total of 365 contracts of PMP for a value of US$ 364.5 million (2001 prices) were awarded. International competitive bidding was the most common procurement method used representing 46.0% of the total PMP contracts amount. Domestic providers supplied 52.5% of the PMP contracts managed by the borrower countries. Twenty-two countries accounted for 97.0% of the total PMP purchased during the period of analysis. Only a small fraction of the Bank activity was directed to the pharmaceutical sector. There is a need for more involvement of the World Bank to increase accessibility, affordability and rational use of pharmaceuticals and medical products. An evaluation of the different procurement methods and their implications on drug quality and prices should be performed.

Databases as Topic↗
PubMed1996

Market commodities and poor relief: the world bank proposal for health.

Investing in Health is the World Bank's blueprint for a new health policy within the context of structural adjustment. While this document includes a broad range of arguments, its implicit premises are neoliberal as can be deduced from its "agenda for action." Health is defined as a private responsibility and health care as a private good. This leads to a health policy based on two complementary principles: the reduction of state intervention and public responsibility, and the promotion of diversity and competition (i.e., privatization). Thus, public institutions should provide only a limited number of public goods and narrowly defined, cost-efficient forms of relief for the poor. All other health-related activities are considered private duties, to be resolved by the market, NGOs, or families. The World Bank policy provides a pragmatic contribution to efforts to achieve fiscal balance. However, it also pushes to recommodify health care and to turn health into a terrain for capital accumulation through the selective privatization of health-related financial and "discretionary" services. The proposal implies large-scale experimentation and dismantling of public institutions which are the only alternative now accessible to the majority. It rejects health as a human need and a social right, and violates basic values by claiming that life and death decisions can be justly made by the market or through a cost-effectiveness formula.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗