LONDON — In the last two decades, the world has spent more than $196 billion trying to save people from death and disease in poor countries.
But just what the world’s gotten for its money isn’t clear, according to two studies published Friday in the medical journal Lancet.
Millions of people are now protected against diseases like yellow fever, sleeping under anti-malaria bed nets and taking AIDS drugs. Much beyond that, it’s tough to gauge the effectiveness of pricey programs led by the United Nations and its partners, and in some cases, big spending may even be counterproductive, the studies say.
Trying to show health campaigns actually saved lives is “a very difficult scientific dilemma,” said Tim Evans, a senior World Health Organization official who worked on one of the papers.
In one paper, WHO researchers examined the impact of various global health initiatives during the last 20 years.
They found some benefits, like increased diagnosis of tuberculosis cases and higher vaccination rates. But they also concluded some U.N. programs hurt health care in Africa by disrupting basic services and leading some countries to slash their health spending.
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The money would have been better spent training our own doctors, while paying those doctors already in developing countries to stay where they are. Instead we send money to the UN, while poaching the best and the brightest from developing nations to come here and lance our boils and cure our warts.
True enough.
Keep in mind how many times we’re told that western nations aren’t doing enough…