RP still lags in education, health delivery, says WB

DELIVERY of the basic services remains a priority issue that has yet to be fully addressed by the government, according to a World Bank executive.
       “Service delivery is a key blockage,” said WB country director Joachim von Amsberg.
       Using what he termed “equality lens” to check on the impact of development efforts by the government, von Amsberg asked: “Are there mechanisms that bias investments to those who already have access to resources?”
       He cited education and health as the two areas considered to be creating significant impact as infrastructure buildup.
       “Equally important are social services. Health care is important,” von Amsberg said. In the medium term, however, he views education as “probably the single most important thing.”
       The recent WB report titled “Health Financing Revisited: A Practitioners Guide” said that a huge gap continues to exist between people’s health requirements and spending.
       The report also said that developing countries account for 84 percent of the global population and 90 percent of the global disease burden, but they only account for 12 percent of global health spending.
       In relation to von Amsberg’s statement regarding the problem of service delivery, George Schieber, a WB senior economist and coauthor of the report, said: “The sad part about it for developing countries is that interventions do exist—many of them are cost-effective, many of them are not expensive, but they are not being provided as they should be.”
       He stressed that middle-income countries confront serious challenges in providing efficient health services and financial cover for their people.
       Further emphasizing the encompassing nature of the current global health situation, the report warned that issues like the potential impact of avian flu and the HIV-AIDS [human immunodeficiency virus-acute immune deficiency syndrome] epidemic are both “a national security issue and a foreign policy issue.” A. Cusi III