Health, Population and Nutrition A number of core problems characterize the health sectors of our partner countries. Rapid population growth and the AIDS pandemic dwarf improvements that have been made in health, population and nutrition. Child mortality continues at over 100 per 1000 live births in many partner countries, and life expectancy is only about 50 years.
Children continue to suffer from malnutrition.
Many people either have no access to health services or must depend on the informal sector, where the quality and cost of treatment vary widely. The familiar vicious circle of illness and poverty continues unbroken. Poor health, malnutrition, and high birth rates shorten productive life-span, so that health, nutritional status and the birth rate are closely bound up with family income and prospects for economic growth. In crisis-afflicted regions, health, social and ecological problems demand particular attention. In the South and the East, financial bottlenecks often aggravate already insufficient access to health services and the poor quality of health care.