Assessing the health benefits of development interventions
17.02.21
- To achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3—healthy lives and well-being for all people—development interventions (such as improved housing, water and sanitation) are critically needed in addition to biomedical interventions (such as drugs, vaccines and insecticides).
- However, many development interventions, such as house screening for vector-borne disease control, remain neglected in global health policy today.
- A major reason for this neglect is a requirement for evidence from rigorous systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials, which were designed for biomedical interventions and are poorly-suited to most development interventions.
- A new framework for assessing the health benefits of development interventions is urgently needed for the health sector to support and fully leverage the potential of the SDGs.