After an extensive consultative process with governments and global partners, including civil society organizations and bilateral and multilateral organizations, the World Bank's new health, nutrition, and population strategy aims to help developing countries strengthen their health systems and improve the health and well-being of millions of the world's poorest people, boost economic growth, reduce poverty caused by catastrophic illness, and provide the structural "glue" that supports multiple health-related programs within countries."--BOOK JACKET.

"The past three decades have seen impressive advances in development in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region. Gains in income and education have been accompanied by reductions in high levels of infant and child mortality and fertility, improved nutritional levels, better hygiene and sanitation and increased access to health care."This book is intended to help address the development challenges and policy directions for the World Bank's Health, Nutrition, and Population (HNP) sector in the region. It highlights key lessons learned in the EAP region and presents policy options and recommendations to strengthen the quality and effectiveness of Bank-supported HNP operations.The development of this strategy is closely linked to the Bank's overall sector strategy that identified three major development priorities: • Improve the health, nutrition, and population outcomes of the poor • Enhance the performance of health care systems • Secure sustainable health care financing.A Health, Nutrition, and Population Strategy for the East Asia and Pacific Region is meant to provide the guidelines and parameters to be used at the country-level. Strategy development will be ongoing, building on best practices within the region as well as internationally.This book is an invaluable resource for all those interested in the field of health, nutrition, and population in the context of international development.

Aging is a challenge which countries in East Asia and Pacific (EAP) regions are grappling with or will soon confront. It raises many questions for policymakers ranging from potential macroeconomic impacts, to fiscal challenges of supporting pension, health and long-term care systems, and labor market implications as countries seek to promote productive aging. The urgency of the aging challenge varies across the region, but it will confront all EAP countries in time and early preparation is essential to avoid the missteps of other regions. Live Long and Prosper discusses the societal and public policy challenges and reform options for EAP countries as they address aging. It aims to strike a balance between aging optimists and pessimists. On the one hand, the impacts of aging on growth, labor markets and public spending are not the unavoidable catastrophe often feared. However, minimizing the downside risks of aging and ensuring healthy and productive aging will require proactive public policy, political leadership, and new mindsets across society. The report reviews the evidence on demographic transition in EAP and its potential macroeconomic impact. It addresses the current policy environment including pensions and social security, health, and long-term care and labor markets to assess the risks of 'business as usual'. It also suggests policy directions to promote healthy and productive aging in EAP, and emphasizes that aging is not just about older people, but requires policy and behavioral change across the life cycle.

"This companion guide to Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition speeds the diffusion of life-saving knowledge by distilling the contents of the larger volume into an easily read format. Policy makers, practitioners, academics, and other interested readers will get an overview of the messages and analysis in Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition; be alerted to the scope of major diseases; learn strategies to improve policies and choices to implement cost-effective interventions; and locate chapters of immediate interest."

This edition of the biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity report brings sobering news. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and its associated economic crisis, compounded by the effects of armed conflict and climate change, are reversing hard-won gains in poverty reduction and shared prosperity. The fight to end poverty has suffered its worst setback in decades after more than 20 years of progress. The goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030, already at risk before the pandemic, is now beyond reach in the absence of swift, significant, and sustained action, and the objective of advancing shared prosperity—raising the incomes of the poorest 40 percent in each country—will be much more difficult. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020: Reversals of Fortune presents new estimates of COVID-19's impacts on global poverty and shared prosperity. Harnessing fresh data from frontline surveys and economic simulations, it shows that pandemic-related job losses and deprivation worldwide are hitting already poor and vulnerable people hard, while also shifting the profile of global poverty to include millions of 'new poor.' Original analysis included in the report shows that the new poor are more urban, better educated, and less likely to work in agriculture than those living in extreme poverty before COVID-19. It also gives new estimates of the impact of conflict and climate change, and how they overlap. These results are important for targeting policies to safeguard lives and livelihoods. It shows how some countries are acting to reverse the crisis, protect those most vulnerable, and promote a resilient recovery. These findings call for urgent action. If the global response fails the world's poorest and most vulnerable people now, the losses they have experienced to date will be minimal compared with what lies ahead. Success over the long term will require much more than stopping COVID-19. As efforts to curb the disease and its economic fallout intensify, the interrupted development agenda in low- and middle-income countries must be put back on track. Recovering from today's reversals of fortune requires tackling the economic crisis unleashed by COVID-19 with a commitment proportional to the crisis itself. In doing so, countries can also plant the seeds for dealing with the long-term development challenges of promoting inclusive growth, capital accumulation, and risk prevention—particularly the risks of conflict and climate change.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the World Bank Group's support for health, nutrition, and population (HNP) in developing countries from 1997 to 2008 - totaling more than $17 billion - and distills lessons for greater impact in the future. It finds that the Bank Group now funds a smaller share of global support for HNP than a decade ago, but its support remains substantial and adds considerable value. About two-thirds of the Bank's HNP support has had satisfactory outcomes, often in difficult environments. But in a number of country settings, particularly in Africa, it has not performed well, in part due to high complexity and weak capacity. Only half of HNP support had a pro-poor focus, while support to reduce high fertility and promote family planning has dwindled. The evaluation highlights the contribution of investments in water supply, sanitation, and hygiene to improving the health of the poor and the lessons from support for sector-wide approaches, communicable disease control, and health reform. Moving forward, the World Bank needs to improve the performance of its HNP support and the Bank and IFC need to take actions to ensure their support reaches the poor and contributes greater social benefits, respectively.

Describing the risks associated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region, this title provides lessons learned from different countries, and spells out key challenges, including political commitment and multisectoral support; public health surveillance and monitoring and evaluation; prevention; care, support, and treatment; and health services delivery.