Research Paper on "Impact of International Financial Institutions on Public Health in Developing Countries"

Research Paper 5 pages (1560 words) Sources: 30 Style: Harvard

[EXCERPT] . . . .

International Financial Institutions on Public Health in Developing Countries

The objective of this work is to investigate the impact of international financial institutions on public health in developing countries. The work of Kanbur entitled: "International Financial Institutions and International Public Goods: Operational Implications for the World Bank" states that when the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) are spoken of by individuals what they mean is "the two Bretton Woods Institutions, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank." (2002) Kunbar states that IFIs are "any multilateral organization with financial operations..." (2002) Examples of these are "the regional multilateral banks, regional monetary authorities, some agencies of the United Nations Organization that disburse funding, etc..." (Kunbar, 2002) Also included are others.

FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION & EFFECTS ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The work of Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose (2003) entitled: "Effects of Financial Globalization on Developing Countries: Some Empirical Evidence" asks the question of whether financial and trade integration have different effects on economic development?" And states, "life expectancy and infant mortality are important dimensions of a society's well-being." Studies on economic growth therefore must "make use of variations of the similar data sources." (Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose, 2003) Data on 79 developing countries is examined in the work of Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose who state that the results as shown in the following figure "suggest that the effects of trade and financial openness are different. There is no positive and robust association across developing countries between faster increase in financial integration and faster improvement in a society's health." (2003) However, by comparison there are stated to be "several pieces of evidence suggesting that higher trade integration is associated with a faster increase in life expectancy and a faster reduction in infant mortality." (Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose, 2003) The figure with these statistics is shown below which has been adapted from the work of Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose (2003).

Source: Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose (2003)

It is stated by Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose (2003) that the "contrast between financial and trade openness may have important lessons for policies. While there appears to be relatively few prerequisites for deriving benefits from trade openness, obtaining benefits from financial integration requires several conditions to be in place." (Wei and Wu, 2002b) Additionally stated is the fact as noted in the September 2002 World Economic Report is the fact that it is "useful to note that there may be a complementary relationship between trade and financial openness (in Prasad, Rogoff, Wei, and Rose) The following figure reveals the specifics of the benefits connected to financial openness and gains in a country's GDP including welfare gains in developing countries as stated in the work of Kose and Prasad from which the following table has been adapted.

Summary Statistics (1960-2000)

Source: (Kose and Prasad; in Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose, 2003)

The Georgetown University work entitled: "Addressing New Global Gaps: Re-Inventing the International Financial Institutions" states that the 20th century, "...was notable for scientific breakthroughs in the social science. Economic theory evolved to a much better understanding of the relationships between monetary, trade and fiscal policies and the real economy. The laws of comparative advantage in the alignment of global competitiveness gave way to a more nuanced understanding of some real advantages by allowing prices to fluctuate and the means of production -capital and labor to move with global supply and demand." (2008)

II. BARRIERS TO DISSEMINATION

There are barriers, which exist to factual dissemination of the real impacts of financial globalization and IFIs on healthcare in developing countries. One of these barriers is that lack of harmonization in statistics on a global basis. Official statistics are those "collected according to good practice, using appropriate methods for data collection, processing and dissemination are crucial as a tool for development." (Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century, 2008) It is related that there is a duty of governments in compiling and publishing official statistics.

III. BARRIERS TO POSITIVE OUTCOMES IN HEALTH CARE FUNDING

The work of Hustaedt and Chau (2007) entitled "Public Service Human Resource Development in International Cooperation - A German Perspective" states "Reducing poverty and increase living standards of the citizens depend on substantial resources and efforts. Unfortunately, the state of developing countries often lacks the capacity to improve people's lives. The state has always played a critical role in the socio-economic development of any country. Henceforth a key role of development cooperation is to support the state to develop the institutional capacity needed to reach its developing targets." In other words, the developing states must first possess the capacity to support and ensure the 'capacity' of that country's provision to the specific developments undertaken in that country. For example, it was reported by the World Bank and cited in Hustaedt and Chau (2007) that in Africa "...the difference between budgeted and actual recurrent expenditure (i.e., spending excluding investment projects, which are often donor-funded) was as high as 30-50%. In some countries, the government had designated primary education, public health, and road maintenance as spending priorities, yet funds often ended up being allocated to other areas."

The work of Gelos and Wei (2002) relates that there is a tendency for international funds to "engage in herding, a behavioral patterns that is sometimes blamed for contributing to instability in the developing countries' financial markets, is in fact related to a country's transparency features. There is some evidence that herding by international funds is more serve in less transparent countries." The work of Prasad, Rogoff, Wei and Kose (2003) states that differential effects noted between "trade and financial integration are echoed in other empirical research (as well as in their own)" and that an alternative to make examination of this effect on economic growth or level of income" is to examine the effects of trade and financial openness on a society's health status." (2008)

CONCLUSION

This very brief yet intense study has concluded that presently there is a lack of empirical research to document the precise effects of the IFIs on healthcare development in poorer developing countries and that this is due to a lack of sound statistics as well as a lack of transparency in developing countries relating to their financial provision in those respective countries for the development of healthcare both of which lead to the inability to fully disseminate the impacts of the IFIs to health care development in these countries.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Because of the breakdown in sound and harmonized statistics between developed and developing countries and due to the lack of transparency in some developing countries there is a urgent need for these factors to be corrected in the processes of these country's reporting and accounting procedures so that factually correct dissemination can be conducted on the effects of IFIs on health care development in poorer developing countries of the world.

Bibliography

Addressing New Global Gaps: Re-Inventing the International Financial Institutions (2008) Georgetown University. Revista Journal. Online available at http://gcg.universia.net/pdfs_revistas/articulo_80_1206609707170.pdf

Cibian, Stefan (2008) Foreign Aid in Dissaray: Theoretical Gaps and Policy Failures. Presented at International Studies Association's 49th Annual Convention "Bridging Multiple Divides" 26-29 2008.

Commission for Macroeconomic and Health (2001) Globalization and Health: A Framework for Analysis and Action, http://www.cmhealth.org/docs/wg4_paper10.pdf

Hustaedt, E. And Chau, Q.M (2007) Public Service Human Resource Development in International Cooperation - A German Perspective. Conference Paper for the PSC International HR Conference 19-20th April 2007. Online available at http://www.ipma-hr.org/pdf/sa/20GTZ-OPSCconferencepaperdonorsupport.doc

IMF Working Paper (Washington: International Monetary Fund) Prasad, Eswar, Rogoff, Kenneth, Shang-Jin, Wei and Kose, Ayhan (2003) Effects of Financial Globalization on Developing Countries: Some Empirical Evidence. Online available at http://www.imf.org/external/np/res/docs/2003/031703.pdf

Kunbar, Ravi (2002) International Financial Institutions and International Public Goods: Operational Implications for the World Bank. G-24 Discussion Paper Series. Center for International Development - Harvard University. No. 19, December 2002. Online available… READ MORE

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