Health Research
The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has also become more and more conscious of the importance of health to development. UNDP has financed research on bilharzia, helped governments to erad- icate treponeniatosis (a disease found in some west African countries and characterized by lesions of the skin, cartilage, and bone), and supported action against leprosy and river blindness.
In 1972 the intemational aid community embarked on an experi- ment of coordinated action against a single disease, river blindness, as a necessary means to help the economic development of a number of west African countries. The threat of river blindness prevents large populations from exploiting small areas of fertile soil available to them. It is such an evident obstacle to economic development that it makes obvious sense for international investment agencies to join with the health organizations to take action against it. Consequently, a steering committee composed of representatives of UNDP, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Bank was set up in 1972. The steering com- mittee prepares and coordinates a $120 million, twenty-year (1974- 94) action program against the disease. The World Bank, on behalf of the steering committee and the African governments concerned, has organized a consultative group of interested governments and international agencies to mobilize finances for the program. If this program proves successful, it will not only have a substantial economic impact on west Africa but will also provide a model for the international community's assault on other major diseases that hold back developing countries. At the beginning of 1975 it seemed fair to conclude that govern- ments and international development agencies had agreed that action against disease in the less developed countries is an important component of any program to help economic development. A number of experiments were initiated. What has been done so far is a promising beginning, but only a beginning. Practically nothing has been done in the way of systematic economic analysis of the various specific obstacles to economic development posed by disease and of the economic and social costs and benefits of projects to remove them. Without this basic information it is impossible for a govern- ment or aid agency to allocate investment optimally between disease control as such and other more conventional investment projects. In the meantime, it is highly improbable that the existing distribution of resources is anywhere near optimal.
