back

Ebipeju Olukoya
Olabisi Onabanjo University

 

     

Globalization and Health: An Evaluation

Treating the world as one huge marketplace brings new opportunities for sharing ideas and technologies, experiencing different cultures, and developing highly efficient modes of production. But anti-globalization rallies show that not everyone is pleased. Globalization can increase the gulf between rich and poor and is currently producing a world where an increasing number of people live in absolute poverty. And poor people all too often have ill health. This file assesses the health impact of economic globalization. The forces that shape poverty and health are complex, and in a globalized world they touch us all. Jesus' comment that there will always be poor people was not just a statement of fact, but also an indictment. Globalization means that not only are the opportunities immediately on our doorstep, but so are the responsibilities. While there are poor people, the rich have a duty of care. Although poverty was horrifying in the first century, the scale has now grown beyond all imagining. Of the 4.4 billion people living in developing countries, three-fifths lack sanitation, one third have no access to clean water, one fifth have no form of healthcare or enough dietary energy or protein, and the number of undernourished people is climbing by 5 million a year. By this, the focus of my paper will be to evaluate, inquire and criticize on the whole the impact of globalization on African health, its relations in the third world countries of Africa and seeing if there have been possible changes caused with the effect of globalization on African Health.


Africa Conference 2005: African Health and Illness
Convened by Dr. Toyin Falola for the Center for African and African American Studies
Coordinated by Matthew Heaton Webmaster, Technical Coordinator: Sam Saverance