Creating a healthy global economy

摘要

Professor Jeffrey Sachs is arguably the world's leading thinker on international health and economic development. As if to confirm it, he has just finished chairing the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, a high profile World Health Organization initiative. The theme of the commission's report, published just before Christmas, is that health is central to economic development, and donors and poor countries must commit more resources to save lives and develop economies (see News, p 7). This is not an entirely novel suggestion-few are-but Professor Sachs, director of the centre of international development at Harvard University, is confident that his report is a major advance.