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Dramatic Impact of your Investment
HIV/AIDS can have a devastating impact on societies
because many of the people it kills are in the prime
of their reproductive and productive lives. In economic
terms, this means decreased productivity of the
workforce, increased labor costs due to higher turnover
and decreased availability of skilled labor, as
well as an overall erosion of the economy. In social
terms, the impact can be even more profound. The
prolonged illness and eventual death that occur
when AIDS is not treated leads to the fragmentation
of families, with a rising number of AIDS orphans,
and financial strain on families who lose the primary
breadwinner. Additionally, due to the fact that
many AIDS orphans and other children affected by
AIDS drop out of school, the opportunities open
to the next generation diminish and the skill base
of societies is weakened. In some countries in Africa,
estimates are that school enrollment has decreased
by 20% - 36% due to AIDS.1
While the potential impact AIDS can have on societies
is profound, relatively small investments in building
the capacity of the healthcare system to respond
to the epidemic can substantially mitigate the social
and economic effects of the disease. ICEHA’s
programs are designed to build the medical human
resources in countries in an extremely cost-effective
and efficient manner. The direct impact these programs
have on local populations is immense. Four of ICEHA’s
volunteers (two doctors, two nurses) working for
three months each in one setting, are able to rapidly
build up the clinical skills of 50 local healthcare
providers in a lasting way. Every local healthcare
worker that is trained by ICEHA is able to:
- Provide care to 250 HIV-infected patients per year on antiretroviral treatment
or provide care to more than 300 HIV-infected patients per year not yet on
antiretroviral treatment per year.
- Communicate HIV prevention messages to an additional 5000 people per year.
This is a very important aspect that does not happen unless the healthcare worker is trained in HIV/AIDS.
This means that sending just four volunteers can result in increased capacity to provide
HIV care to 12,500 – 15,000 patients and communicate HIV prevention
messages to 250,000 people per year. The total cost to send 4
volunteers is $127,000, of which only $24,000 is needed in cash funding.
In addition to the direct impact of ICEHA’s
programs on the care provided to HIV patients, the
programs also have a much larger social and economic
impact on societies by building up the overall capacity
of healthcare systems and therefore improving the
health of populations:
Social Impact of ICEHA’s Programs:
- Family structures are maintained. Studies have shown that families are very likely to become
fragmented and disperse if a key adult family member dies.2 Improving the quality of healthcare
in countries and therefore decreasing mortality due to HIV/AIDS has a direct impact on keeping families together.
- Educational opportunities increase, as teachers infected with HIV are able to remain in the
classroom instead of becoming too ill to teach and as children are able to remain in school
instead of caring for sick parents or working to support their families. With increased education,
opportunities open to the next generation are greatly improved.
- Poverty is decreased, as people are either prevented from becoming ill in the first place
or are given treatment and are able to continue working.
- Access to healthcare is expanded. Building up the healthcare infrastructure and
increasing the number of trained local healthcare workers leads to the expansion of
healthcare beyond the larger city centers into rural populations that have traditionally
had little access to care.
Economic Impact of ICEHA’s Programs:
Investments in healthcare infrastructure lead to
healthier populations, with longer life spans. This
is particularly true for AIDS, in which proper care
and medication can dramatically increase the life
expectancy of patients. In turn, this leads to economic
growth. In specific, the World Health Organization
estimates that each 10% improvement in life expectancy
at birth is associated with an increase in economic
growth of 0.3% to 0.4% per year.3 There are several
ways that improvements in health stimulate economic
growth:
- Increased worker productivity: Investments in health lead to healthier populations, which
increases worker productivity (because of better physical condition and fewer lost workdays due to illness).4
- Increased longevity: Investments in health lead to increased life expectancy, which has numerous
economic impacts. Not only does it mean more years of earning power and consumption, it also
means that individuals will be more likely to invest a larger portion of their income to savings. This
increase in the savings rate is likely to spur overall economic growth.
- Increased skill and human capital: People in good health are more likely to invest in
education than those in poor health because they expect to live long enough to enjoy the
benefits of increased skills. A more educated population leads to greater productivity and
drives economic development. In addition, people in good health are more likely to benefit
from education because they are better able to attend school regularly and have a higher
capacity to learn and retain information.
With a relatively small investment of donations
from funders and medical expertise and time from
volunteers, ICEHA’s programs have the potential
to not only positively impact the quality of care
provided to HIV patients, but the entire social
and economic development of societies.
- UNAIDS. HIV/AIDS, human resources and sustainable development : World Summit on Sustainable
Development, Johannesburg 2002. January 2002.
- UNAIDS. HIV/AIDS, human resources and sustainable development : World Summit on Sustainable
Development, Johannesburg 2002. January 2002.
- World Health Organization. Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development.
Report of the Commission and Macroeconomics and Health, chaired by Jeffrey Sachs. December 2001.
http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc/docs/RT.K.MacroeconomicsHealth.pdf
- Bloom, David E., and David Canning. “The Health and Wealth of Nations.” 2001.
http://www.riverpath.com/library.asp
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