An Introduction to Health Planning in Developing Countries

The importance of planning in the health sector has become widely recognized in recent years. Planning involves deciding how resources should be allocated and determining how to implement these decisions. For developing countries, which are attempting to improve their poor levels of health with extremely limited resources, judicious health planning may be critical. This book covers all aspects of planning for health in developing countries. Within the context of a primary health care approach, it emphasizes the many factors that impinge on health, the different non-governmental agencies involved in health activities, and the need for participation in planning by communities. Equity is an important theme throughout the book. The need for combining planning techniques and political analysis is stressed, as is the importance of planning by a wide variety of health professionals in addition to specialist health planners. Although this is an introductory text, it has been written to initiate those with no prior planning experience, as well as qualified health planners, to the problems relevant to developing countries.