Portuguese edition (Melhor Saude em Africa: Experiencia e Ensinamentos Colhidos). Poor health in Sub-Saharan Africa has immense economic consequences. Besides the high mortality and disease rates and the pain and suffering it causes, poor health robs the continent of human capital, reduces returns to learning, impedes entrepreneurial activities, and restricts economic growth. This study argues that despite financial constraints, significant improvements are possible in many countries, as has been seen in Benin, Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe. The book also presents positive ideas on how to make these improvements. Better Health in Africa documents lessons learned and best practices in four major areas. 1) African households and communities need the knowledge and resources to recognize and respond effectively to health problems. Threats to health should be made known and countered through public and private services. 2) Human and financial resources must be used more productively by reforming health care systems. Correcting sources of waste and inefficiency must take top priority. 3) Cost-effective packages of basic health services can do much to meet the needs of households and reduce the burden of disease. Networks of local health centers and small hospitals in rural and periurban areas can facilitate delivery. 4) Additonal funds totaling $1.6 billion a year can help those living in Africa's low-income areas obtain basic health services. Cost-sharing can make an important contribution to health equity and the sustainability of health services. The report emphasizes that no government should delay committing itself to the task, although progress toward better health will vary from country to country and no single formula will apply to all. Better Health in Africa presents action plans and yardsticks for measuring progress. The idea of the core, cost-effective package of health services complements World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health with an operationally oriented perspective on health services. The report also reflects the views of organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF that will work together in helping African countries adapt and implement the report's recommendations. Also available: English (ISBN 0-8213-2817-4) Stock No. 12817; French (ISBN 0-8213-2818-2) Stock No. 12818.

This open access book provides a clear holistic conceptual framework of CISS-F (competitiveness, inclusiveness, sustainability, scalability and access to finance) to analyse the efficiency of value chains of high value agricultural commodities in India. It is based on the understanding that agriculture is an integrated system that connects farming with logistics, processing and marketing. Farmer’s welfare being central to any agricultural policy makes it very pertinent to study how a value chain works and can be strengthened further to realize this policy goal. This book adds value to the existing research by studying the value chains end-to-end across a wide spectrum of agricultural commodities with the holistic lens of CISS-F. It is not enough that a value chain is competitive but not inclusive or it is competitive and inclusive but not sustainable. The issue of scalability is very critical to achieve macro gains in terms of greater farmer outreach and sectoral growth. The research undertaken here brings out some very useful insights for policymaking in terms of what needs to be done better to steer the agricultural value chains towards being more competitive, inclusive, sustainable and scalable. The value chain specific research findings help draw very nuanced policy recommendations as well as present a big picture of the future direction of policy making in agriculture.

Between 1970 and 2009, India has overcome many infrastructural, market, and institutional challenges to transition from a dairy importing nation to the top producer in the world of both buffalo and goat milk, as well as the sixth largest producer of cow milk. In India, at least 100 million households are involved in farming and 70 million have dairy cattle. In India, dairy production is important for employment, income levels, and the nutritional quality of diets. Milk production in India is dominated by smallholder farmers including landless agricultural workers. For example, 80 percent of milk comes from farms with only two to five cows. A well-known smallholder dairy production initiative, Operation Flood, laid the foundation for a dairy cooperative movement that presently ensures returns on dairy investments to 13 million members. Operation Flood also advanced infrastructural improvements to enable the procurement, processing, marketing, and production of milk and to link India's major metropolitan cities with dairy cooperatives nationwide. This intervention transformed the policy environment, brought significant technological advancements into the rural milk sector, established many village cooperatives, and oriented the dairy industry toward markets.

As millions continue to face a future of food poverty, lessons can be learned by considering how farmer cooperatives succeeded in improving India's food security. 'Operation Flood', which revitalised the Indian dairy industry between 1970 and 1996, was the world's largest development programme, however critics accused it of luring India to neocolonial dependence on European surpluses. Eventually the perils of reliance on food aid were managed by proper pricing policies that both benefited rural farming families and wiped out urban 'milk famines'. In 2008 the World Bank hailed the programme's success and now promotes similar schemes in Africa. A detailed understanding of India's White Revolution is therefore imperative in the context of its future use in the developing world.

Analyses Various Issues Related To Dairy Development. It Is Divided In Two Parts And Gives The Pros And Cons Of Dairy Development In India. Primarly Meant For Students, Research, Professionals, And Policy Makes Involved In The Subject.

This book examines the current thinking on the controversial issues surrounding food aid, and of the contribution that the use of economics and other disciplines in the social sciences can make to impact assessment. It focuses on recent activities in Sub-Saharan Africa.