Development spending in health sector can lead to improvements in other basic services

Global health expert Jim Yong Kim, the U.S. nominee to the World Bank presidency, "is attracting criticism from those worried about the 'healthization' of the development field," Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in this post in the center's "Global Health Policy" blog. Glassman describes the differences between development aid aimed at improving health versus other basic services such as water, sanitation, roads, justice, education, electricity, and lays out several points supporting her position that spending in the health sector leads to improvements in other economic arenas. "'[H]ealthization' can't fairly be characterized as just charity and expansive spending, a marginal field of endeavor not related to the core business," she writes, adding, "Instead, better health and nutrition are major players in the development story, and the field has lots to offer the broader enterprise" (3/28).