The extreme temperatures expected under climate change may be especially harmful to children. Children are more vulnerable to heat partly because of their physiological features, but, perhaps more important, because they behave and respond differently than adults do. Children are less likely to manage their own heat risk and may have fewer ways to…

Globally, there has been a shift in the causes of illness and death from infectious diseases to noncommunicable diseases. This changing pattern has been attributed to the effects of an (ongoing) epidemiologic transition. Although researchers have applied epidemiologic transition theory to questions of global health, there have been relatively few…

Environmental health issues are major risk factors in the global burden of disease. This paper therefore focuses on the most important link between health and environment. It discusses the most important environmental threats to health in the 21st Century especially in the low and middle income countries. It reviews the burden of disease from…

In developing countries as in developed countries, the COVID-19 crisis has led to near universal school closures that will affect children's ability to learn, especially in countries with limited infrastructure for distance learning. While most children are likely to return to school when they reopen, quite a few may drop out. In addition, the…

Climate change may be particularly dangerous for children in developing countries. Even today, many developing countries experience a disproportionate share of extreme weather, and they are predicted to suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change in the future. Moreover, developing countries often have limited social safety nets,…

Most Tanzanian Higher Education Institutes do not have the materials and technology to give students a significant practical experience in the sciences. In 2013 Tanzania was rated 159th out of 187 countries for "human development" (United Nations Development Program 2014 Report). In order to supplement their current, limited practical…

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were agreed at United Nations General Assembly Millennium Summit in 2000, address challenges in poverty reduction, hunger, health, gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability, an ambitious set of development targets aimed at reducing poverty and improving the lives of people all…

Globally mosquito-borne lymphatic filariasis (LF) is targeted for elimination by 2020. Towards this goal, the scope of community-based vector control as a supplementary strategy to mass drug administration (MDA) was assessed through an intensive education campaign and evaluated using pre- and post-educational surveys in an intervention and…

Access to education is recognized as a basic human right and yet projections based on current trends show that more than 50 countries will not achieve universal primary education by 2015. This briefing paper looks at the role of malnutrition and diseases in the failure of countries to meet EFA targets. It is based on the CREATE Pathways to Access…

Although it is well known that vaccines against many infectious diseases confer positive economic externalities via indirect protection, analysts have typically ignored possible herd protection effects in policy analyses of vaccination programs. Despite a growing literature on the economic theory of vaccine externalities and several innovative…

An outstanding problem that has haunted most development workers in Africa has been how to effectively engage rural communities who often have no access to modern technological media like newspapers, radio, television, video and film. The tendency has been for development workers to resort to top-down or blueprint development approaches that…

Anemia is among the most widespread health problems for children in developing countries. This paper evaluates the impact of a randomized health intervention delivering iron supplementation and deworming drugs to Indian preschool children. At baseline, 69 percent were anemic and 30 percent had intestinal worm infections. Weight increased among…

Global Population Profile: 2002 summarizes the most important trends in global population at the dawn of the 21st century. The presentation is organized around four themes: (1) Global Population; (2) Growth, Global Population; (3) Composition, Contraceptive Prevalence in the Developing World; and (4) the AIDS Pandemic in the 21st Century. This…

This paper argues that many internationally financed literacy programs do not sufficiently take into consideration important daily life issues of the learners, including nutritional deficiencies that may hinder learning, or of children-parent-society interactions that may improve learning. As a result, many programs have become synonymous with…

In nine chapters, this book considers the extent to which training programs can be utilized to improve midwifery practice and reduce the risks surrounding childbirth in rural populations. The book opens with a chapter reviewing the question of whether the availability of trained birth attendants can be linked to a reduced incidence of neonatal…