This volume presents eleven case studies that document how well or how
poorly health, nutrition, and population programs have performed in
reaching disadvantaged groups. The studies were commissioned by the
Reaching the Poor Program, which was undertaken by the World Bank in
cooperation with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the governments
of the Netherlands and Sweden in an effort to find better ways of
ensuring that health, nutrition, and population programs benefit the
neediest.
The case studies, reinforced by other materials gathered by the Reaching
the Poor Program, clearly demonstrate that health programs can reach the poor
far better than they presently do. We hope that policy makers will take this
message to heart and will find the experiences reported here helpful as they
seek to develop the more effective strategies required to ensure that the
poor share fully in health improvements.