Resource Library

Designing Health & Population Programs to Reach the Poor

The need to improve the health of the poor is urgent, but many health programs fail to serve them well. The recent report, Designing Health & Population Programs to Reach the Poor, explains why the poor typically receive less health care than the rich and describes approaches used around the world to better serve the poor. It examines case studies of programs that evaluated the distribution of program benefits to different economic groups, and also highlights the tools used to do such evaluations. Staff of the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and the World Bank collaborated to produce this report, which is aimed at those who fund, design, manage, and evaluate health and population programs in developing countries. The report gives special attention to reproductive health in the data and examples provided, but also offers lessons for those working in other sectors. The U.S. Agency for International Development provided funding for the report.