Microenterprise Development for Better Health Outcomes

Showing that economic development and public health, often thought of as distinct, are both interdependent and dependent on social and political conditions, this book provides a new appreciation of the close relationship between microenterprise development and health in developing countries. Many of the world's poor earn a living from microenterprises, often outside the formal economy, and international practitioners have recently turned their attention to this underground economy, providing support through group poverty lending and village banking models, but overlooking the potential benefits of linking income generation with public health. This book argues for a conceptual and practical relationship between microenterprise development and household health, nutrition, and sanitation.

To support their framework, the authors look at specific actions for harnessing the power of microeconomic development to improve health and human development. They support their argument further with case studies of innovative programs carried out in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The book challenges the reader to cross disciplinary and professional boundaries to not only understand the interrelationships between health and income generation but to use available tools to enhance those interrelationships.

ROSALIA RODRIGUEZ-GARCIA is Professor and Chair of the Department of International Public Health and Director of The Center for International Health at George Washington University./e She has worked in the field of health and socioeconomic development policies and programs around the world since 1972. In 1992 she cofounded the Center for International Health.

JAMES A. MACINKO is an international health policy consultant who has worked with the George Washington University Center for International Health, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University./e His research interests include planning and evaluation of multidisciplinary health and human development programs, applied health policy research, health reform and equity, and models of international health cooperation.

WILLIAM F. WATERS is Senior Associate in the Center for International Health and Associate Research Professor of International Public Health and International Affairs at George Washington University./e Earlier he worked as a consultant in rural development project design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, and served as Dean of Development Administration at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. His work centers on the relationship between health and development.