ABSTRACT
The health of populations and individuals is inextricably bound up with development. Development, in the most general meaning of the word, entails change and often important alterations to people’s living environments. However, many studies and projects related to development have ignored or skirted around the health dimension. This has been highlighted in recent years by a number of authors and has been brought into sharp focus by the World Health Organization’s publication in 1992 of a report of the WHO Commission on Health and Environment, entitled Our Planet, Our Health (WHO 1992a). This report takes a systematic view of global change and impacts on food supply, water, energy industry and settlements, and proposes certain strategies and actions. This current book provides very much a complementary perspective, discussing important underlying issues of health change with development and providing specific country and regional studies of health and development.
