Global Poverty Info Bank

Health and Poverty

Health has a key role in determining the livelihoods and development of communities. Despite acknowledgment in the United Nations Millennium poll that health is the most important thing that people value in life, it remains a topic largely shunned by political leaders. The condition of healthcare and the health of citizens is an issue which must not be ignored: as both a cause and consequence of poverty, an unhealthy community leads to an unhealthy nation. The prominence of AIDS, HIV and the deaths of children are big reasons why we need to make a big difference. (Read More)

Children and Poverty

The world is home to 2.2 billion children. Children in developing countries face often deadly complications in their early years as a result of poor healthcare. Child Mortality is the number of children who die by the age of five out of every thousand live births. Malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia are some of the major causes of death and everyday struggles children face in the developing world. The UN stated in 2007 that children in developing countries are thirteen times more likely to die in the first five years of life than those in developed countries. About 21,000 young children die every day, mainly from preventable causes. There is good news however - In 2010, this figure fell 6% from 2009. (Read More)