DATE LECTURER3/14/2013 Aaron Pascal Mauck MA, PhD

Internationalism and Health

Lecture:

Health and the Doctrine of Development

I. The Doctrine of Development

II. Economic Development and Health

III. WHO Development Policies, 1948-1970

IV.WHO Development Policies in Transition, 1970-1978

The Doctrine of Development

Development is broadly linked to modernization theory, which tends to positA single, generally unidirectional process of social evolution away from Traditional societies towards modern ones. Modernity is often associated With positive political, social, and economic goals.

Development became an explicit international goal in the aftermath of WWIIAs a strategy for rebuilding the global economy, modernizing post-colonialNations, and pursuing the Cold War

Development policies have often focused on economic development as the key to other forms of development. Health policies have played a secondary but important role in development models through their links to the economy.

From the forties through the sixties, the state played a large role in promotingDevelopment through support of industrialization. By the eighties, market- centered models neoliberal Policies stressing comparative advantage began to replace state-centered models.

The Doctrine of Development

“More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery. Their food is inadequate, they are victims of disease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas. For the first time in history humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people ... I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life… What we envisage is a program of development based on the concepts of democratic fair dealing ... Greater production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key to greater production is a wider and more vigorous application of modem scientific and technical knowledge”

Harry Truman

The Doctrine of Development

Economic development was facilitated by the creationof national and international organizations with explicitdevelopment goals, largely related to the reorganizationOf land, labor, and capital along “modern” lines

World Bank was established in 1944 with the official goalOf alleviating poverty. Its initial focus was on EuropeanRecovery, but shifted to economically developing Countries after the introduction of the Marshall Plan.

From 1948-1968, World Bank loans were relatively smallAnd were linked to infrastructural improvements. After 1968 the loan program expanded, and shifted towardsSocial services and other economic sectors

Economic Development and Health

WHO Development Policies, 1948-1970

The WHO was created in affiliation with the UN, and like the UN had an explicitly International approach designed to control the Impact of national politics in shaping its agenda

The constitution of the World Health Organization was signed by all 61 countries of the UN by 1946. The first meeting of the World Health Assembly took place in 1948

The WHO incorporated both the Office International d'Hygiène Publique and theLeague of Nations Health Organization , but developed an agenda of diseaseControl and eradication based on the advances that had taken place in WWII

Central to early WHO activities were global activities to control infectious diseasesLike gonorrhea, syphilis, and tuberculosis, and parasitic diseases like malaria.This reflected the presence of new tools: antibiotics and pesticides.

G. Brock Chisholm , the first president, adopted an explicitly apolitical stance, and Worked to maintain membership even with the temporary attrition of Eastern Bloc Countries between 1953 and 1958.