Malaria remains a global public health problem. In the Western Pacific
Region, malaria is endemic in 10 countries. The incidence rate in the
Region ranges from 161.7 per 1000 people in Solomon Islands to 0.04 in
the Republic of Korea.
The strategies employed to prevent and control malaria have been
effective in reducing the burden of disease in countries in the Region.
Yet, as analyses of health outcomes become more refined it is
increasingly apparent that poor and marginalized populations might not
be benefiting from investments in malaria prevention and control. The
challenge for health care professionals is to ensure that effective
malaria prevention and control initiatives reach poor and marginalized
populations in the Region.
It is estimated that about 70% of the world's poor are women. Similarly
in the Western Pacific Region, poverty often wears a woman's face.
Indicators on human poverty including health indicators often reflect
severe gender-based disparities. In this way, gender inequality is a
significant determinant of health outcomes in the Region with women and
girls often at a severe societal disadvantage.
Although poverty and gender significantly influence health and
socioeconomic development health professionals are not always adequately
prepared to address such issues in their work. This publication aims to
improve the awareness knowledge and skills of health professionals in
the Region on poverty and gender concerns.
The set of modules that comprise this Sourcebook are intended for use in
pre-service and in-service training of health professionals. It is
expected that this publication will also be of use to health
policy-makers and programme managers either as a reference document or
in conjunction with in-service training. This module is designed to help
fill the gap by building the capacity of health professionals to analyze
and address the interrelationship between poverty and health. It is
divided into six sections.
Section 1 defines what poverty is, its consequences and multiple
dimensions. It also identifies a variety of measures and indicators of
poverty including methods of determining the prevalence of poverty and
inequality within a community. Section 2 explains what the links between
poverty and health are. Section 3 discusses why it is important for
health professionals to address issues of poverty from efficiency equity
and human rights perspectives. Section 4 discusses how health
professionals and the health care system as a whole can address issues
of poverty with a special focus on low-income women and those from other
marginalized or vulnerable groups. Section 5 provides notes for
facilitators and finally section 6 contains a collection of tools
resources and references to support health professionals in their work
in this field.
