The arms race and the health needs of the developing countries

Abstract

The United Nations puts health and adequate nutrition among the basic rights of all human beings. Yet there is an enormous ‘development gap’ between the people of the richest and of the poorest fifths of the world, and this is particularly so in the field of health care. The Medical Association for Prevention of War has always supported, as a positive step towards peace, the transfer of resources from military expenditure to development in general and health and nutrition in particular. This paper discusses the size of the problem of health needs in the developing countries and the link between the arms race and health care. It looks at the limited progress in the campaign for Health for All by the Year 2000 and indicates the resources required and the difficulties in finding the necessary funds. An increasing interest on the part of the affluent North in the health and nutritional needs of the developing world is noted. The paper concludes with some concrete propositions.

Key Words:

• Development gap
• Military expenditures
• Health for all International co‐operation