The World Bank and world health

Abstract

It should be noted that morality refers to what people believe is right or wrong about relationships, and that a wide range of 'local moralities' can be observed around the world. Ethics is defined as a branch of philosophy that examines the basis for right and wrong, good and bad, and attempts to provide reasons for recommending norms for behaviour. Despite spectacular progress in science and technology during the twentieth century, as we enter the twenty-first the world is more inequitable than it was 50 years ago. Disparities in wealth and health within and between nations are widening inexorably, and the rapidly expanding global economy has failed to reduce poverty and improve health for all. This is evident both in terms of access to health care for individuals, and in relation to the health of whole populations. Billions of people live in degrading poverty with little if any access to health care, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains an unrealized aspiration for the majority of the world's people.