Right to health in developing countries

The burden of high maternal and child mortality is one which the Nigerian Government is working hard to overcome particularly in the northern part of the country. Majority of women in Yobe State, just like any other state in Northern Nigeria, deliver at home. Those who deliver at home often do so because of reasons related to cultural norms (not necessary to deliver in a health facility), cost, lack of transport, lack of spousal permission or due to health worker’s attitude. One of the strategies in improving maternal and neonatal health would be to reduce the barriers to accessing emergency maternal obstetric care services through functional emergency transport scheme (ETS). We report preliminary results of a community-based quasi experimental prospective pilot study on the role of financial incentives in sustaining the ETS in Yobe State, northwest Nigeria. Over 75% of women and newborns from the incentivized intervention communities benefited from ETS services compared with their counterparts. The pilot study also demonstrated its ability to transport women from hard-to-reach and impoverished rural areas to health facilities. We discuss these results in light of the existing challenges related to health service delivery and the need to scale up the pilot results.

Emerging economies are showing signs of health improvements with average levels of key health outcomes increasing but with levels of inequalities at times worsening. Using the National Family Health Surveys (1992, 1998, 2005) for India and Household Demographic Surveys (PNDS) (1992, 1996, 2006) in Brazil this paper analyses how the stages in public spending reforms in both countries have progressed at a time of health improvements and how they have might have had an impact on health inequalities focusing on maternal and child health (MCH). This has been at the forefront in low and middle income countries in widening access to health care. The aims of this paper are to chart the evolution of health reforms in both Brazil and India and to assess how inequalities in MCH have changed over this period. Without aiming to assess the impact, the following issues are addressed: Have health reforms over the last two decades improved or worsened inequality? What can be learnt from the experiences and how can we benefit from the comparison between Brazil and India? What are the key challenges in comparing two culturally and politically different countries? The paper shows how Brazil is succeeding in reducing inequalities whereas India has still a long way to go. This paper is set within a wider call for universal health coverage in LMICs.

Health is a major urban policy issue in Nigeria because poverty and slum conditions pose a serious public health threat to the country's rapidly expanding urban population. In vast areas of the cities inadequate housing, sanitation and waste management, and the poor state of public health infrastructure have led to the spread of water-borne and other communicable disease. The Millennium Development Goals in health, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and international development assistance are unlikely to be met.The level of preventable child and maternal deaths, HIV, etc is still high; and the pattern of government spending on the health sector remains equitable. The paper considers ways to reduce poverty, slum conditions and worsening disparities in access to health care. The central argument is that human development and welfare ought to be at the center of the concern for sustainable urbanization in Africa. We need to review discriminatory laws and practices which inhibit the access of the poor to affordable land, housing and other opportunities.. State and local authorities, the international development community, the private sector and civil society organizations should collaborate to promote well targeted health and other intervention for safer, healthier and more inclusive cities.

This study assesses the dynamics of met and unmet need for contraception and, its program as well as policy implications in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal; from rights perspective. Data of currently married women aged 15-49 years from the latest round of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of each country was used; sample sizes were 93089 for India, 10192 for Bangladesh, 9556 for Pakistan, and 9608 for Nepal. IBM-SPSS software (Version 19.0) was used for bivariate and multi-variate analyses with a significance level of 5%.

Analyses indicate considerable intra-country differences in contraceptive use, demand, met as well as unmet need, and the determinants. High unmet need often influenced by various policy and program issues, questions the quality of care. Across countries, higher health care autonomy was linearly associated with unmet need for spacing but had an inverse association with unmet need for limiting. Expanding the outreach of family planning promotion campaigns, programs enhancing health care decision making of women, and quality service delivery; all with country specific modifications are pertinent. Informed choice and access to quality services are reproductive rights of every woman, and if addressed, would facilitate better sexual and reproductive health of women in South Asia.

One group of human rights is to guarantee an adequate standard of living to everyone. This paper narrows the focus to health, particularly with respect visual difficulty. Indonesia is the ninth country who signed the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2007. It took four years for Indonesia to finally ratify the convention, precisely on 18 October 2011. At almost the same time, the Indonesia 2010 population census collected information on visual difficulties. It is the first nationwide data gathering information on this type of disability. It is a self-assessment which takes three options: no difficulty, some difficulty and severe difficulty. Therefore, the paper aims at providing reference statistics, distribution and prevalence, on visual difficulty estimated from the Indonesia 2010 Population Census
We use two types of measurements: distribution and prevalence. It takes into account differential by age, sex and place of residence. This paper also examines the extent Indonesians have the financial ability and accessibility to improve their visual ability; and the laws as well as their enforcement to help improving the visual ability.

Issue of access to basic household amenities such as adequate housing, domestic electricity connection, potable drinking water and sanitation facility has been studied from various perspectives for example human development, poverty, health, rural development, human rights perspective, etc. Today, vast majority of population all over the world and in India lack access to these amenities. Situation in rural areas is particularly pathetic for all households and in particular for those belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Muslims and other marginal and deprived sections of the society. Historically these groups have been treated and assigned unequal rank in economic, social as well as in cultural sphere. These groups continue facing segregation and exclusion in the village geography and habitation pattern.
This paper discusses access of households to adequate housing and other basic household amenities in selected villages in different states of India with a special reference to United Nations norms and standards on these variables. The data was collected on a census based household survey in these villages.
Focus of the findings from the data will be the disparities in access to basic household amenities among different caste and social groups in these villages.

On 1993, the Government of Puerto Rico had been providing direct healthcare services for almost 50 years. Because of raising costs of healthcare technology, the government officers decided to stop financing direct healthcare services transforming its role to one of an insurer. It has been 18 (2010) years since the approval of the Puerto Rico Healthcare Reform of 1993 and the question still lies in public discussions and on professional meetings; Has the Government achieve all the objectives of the Healthcare Reform of 1993?. This research primary objective was to produce an answer to this unanswered question. DESIGN METHODS: Using case study and comparative analysis that included budget, economic, annual reports, among others a design was produced to achieve an effective assessment of the Puerto Rico Healthcare Reform. RESULTS: Since the government is still a direct provider of healthcare services not only an insurer and has not achieved a reduction of the public healthcare expenditures associated with the healthcare sector the objectives of the Healthcare Reform of 1993 have not ben met. CONCLUSION: After a thorough analysis of the data, it can be concluded that the objectives of the Healthcare Reform of Puerto Rico of 1993 have not been met, thus making this important reform a failure.

Almost 668,000 of 918,000 of prisoners in Africa are in Sub-Saharan Africa where Southern Africa itself makes up 10% of the total number of prisoners in Africa. Therefore the study main objectives are in line with the need to assess the treatments and condition of prisoners and detainees in Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. In particular, the study evaluates and assesses the potentials of the relevant legal, policy, procedural and practice for the right to health and the treatment of detainees in the SADC Region. The other objectives of the study are to identify and discuss challenges faced by prisoners and detainees in the SADC Region; and advocate for opportunities for health awareness for both staffs and prisoners in the SADC Region. The study is a desk based. In conducting this research primary and secondary data will be used. The SADC Lawyers’ Association report on prisons visit in some SADC countries will inform our recommendations. The study finds that lack of health services in some countries or their inappropriateness in other countries significantly contribute to the vulnerability of prisoners. It is suggested that Governments should allocate sufficient fund for the management of prison and that regular inspections or monitoring systems should be put in place