In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
This second volume from the United Nations Intellectual History Project surveys the history of the UN's regional commissions and the ideas they have developed over the last 40 years. Each essay is devoted to one of the five regional commissions -- Europe, Asia and the Far East, Latin America, Africa, and Western Asia -- and how it has approached its mission of assessing the condition of regional economies and making prognoses about future conditions. The essays describe how each commission has added local perspectives to global debates over economic development and brought an authentic regional voice to the UN. Contributors are Adebayo Adedeji, Yves Berthelot, Leelananda de Silva, Blandine Destremau, Paul Rayment, and Gert Rosenthal.
Over the past decade, global output has grown by more than 3 percent a year and inflation has slowed in most regions. The fruits of this growthhave not been shared equally, however, and income disparities have grownin many countries, developed as well as developing. One of the mostpressing issues facing policymakers today is how to respond to these trends. To what extent are growth and equity complementary, and to whatextent is there a trade-off between the two? This Economic Issue is a summary version of an Issues Paper circulated at the IMF Conference on Economic Policy and Equity, held on June 8-9, 1998, at IMF headquarters.
What new directions will development take in the next century? A distinguished group of experts on economic development debated this question in late 1996. Their views of the emerging development consensus are presented in Economic and Social Development into the XXI Century. The authors give special attention to developing countries in Latin America and East Asia. Analyzing the growth of certain East Asian economies, they ask what can be emulated: state-engineered industrial policies? an export push? better initial income distribution? fiscal incentives to promote corporate growth? the region's successful land reform efforts, or the commitment to better education? While agreeing that equity is a major determinant of economic success, they differ regarding how to achieve it.
This landmark work is the first sustained critique of Latin American neostructuralism, the prevailing narrative that has sought to replace "market fundamentalism" and humanize the "savage capitalism" imposed by neoliberal dogmatism. Fernando Leiva analyzes neostructuralism and questions its credibility as the answer to the region's economic, political, and social woes. Recent electoral victories by progressive governments in Latin America promising economic growth, social equity, and political democracy raise a number of urgent questions, including: What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the emerging paradigm? What kinds of transformations can this movement enact? Leiva addresses these issues and argues that the power relations embedded in local institutions, culture, and populations must be recognized when building alternatives to the present order. Considering the governments in countries such as Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, Leiva examines neostructuralism's impact on global politics and challenges whether this paradigm constitutes a genuine alternative to neoliberalism or is, rather, a more sophisticated form of consolidating existing systems.
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically. A resolutely materialist spirituality based equally on science and science fiction: a wild feminist and afro-futurist ride! adrienne maree brown, co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, is a social justice facilitator, healer, and doula living in Detroit.
Fully indexed, the 1992 edition of the Yearbook is the single most current, comprehensive and authoritative reference publication about the work of the United Nations, other international organizations and related bodies. The book is designed not just for use by diplomats, officials and scholars but also by other researchers, writers, journalists, teachers and students. The year 1992 was a remarkably eventful one for the United Nations and in the conduct of international relations. This volume of the Yearbook details the activities of the United Nations, its many organs, agencies and programmes, working together to rekindle a new form of multilateral cooperation for a better world. It records the diverse and globe-encompassing activities of the United Nations and its enduring efforts to deal with the world's pressing concerns, particularly matters of international peace and security, disarmament, human rights, the settlement of regional conflicts, economic and social development, the preservation of the environment, control of drugs and narcotic substance abuse, crime prevention, adequate shelter, youth and the ageing and humanitarian assistance for refugees as well as disaster relief. The Yearbooks for the years 1988, 1989 and 1990 are expected to be published within the next two years.