A/HRC/17/25 I. Introduction 1. This report is submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolutions 15/22 and 6/29. Over the last decade, particularly since the Millennium Declaration and formulation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), development and the right to health have increasingly converged. Prior to this, the right to health (and human rights more broadly) had only occasionally been linked with development despite their largely common goals and only recently have significant efforts been made toward fully integrating the two disciplines. However, throughout the evolution of the modern development enterprise, it has been frequently recognized that health plays a critical role in achieving particular development outcomes; conversely, it has been increasingly noted of late that development strategies can also have significant positive and negative impacts on the health of populations. 2. Nearly half of the MDGs address health-related issues, which comprise fundamental aspects of the right to health, and the other MDGs address its underlying determinants. Moreover, many development programmes and institutions have begun to make use of a right to health approach in their practices and programmes. However, much work remains to be done, and in this report, the Special Rapporteur seeks to examine and analyze the convergences between development and the right to health, to more fully understand what it means to take a right to health approach to development. 3. Broadly speaking, development refers to processes of social change and to projects meant to transform national economies, particularly in former colonies or third world States.1 A narrower conception of international development evolved after the Second World War with the establishment of institutions, policies, disciplinary formations and – most importantly – practices of intervention aimed toward the alleviation of poverty in the third world.2 Although the modern development enterprise found its roots in the same conflict as that which gave birth to the international human rights movement, the two disciplines have largely existed in parallel and, despite their shared goals, have largely remained separate pursuits until recent times. 4. The links between health and development have long been acknowledged. It is generally recognized that securing a certain level of health-related development is a prerequisite for the overall economic development of a country.3 For instance, in Africa, it is estimated that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has reduced the economic growth rate by between two to four per cent continent-wide.4 Similarly, it has been estimated that the longterm negative effects of malaria result in a decrease in gross national product of up to 1.3 per cent in certain affected regions.5 5. The importance of particular aspects of health as they relate to poverty, and in turn, development, has also been well documented. For example, securing the sexual and 1 2 3 4 5 Derek Gregory, The Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th ed. (Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) p. 155. Ibid. Jocelyn E. Finlay, The Role of Health in Economic Development, PGDA Working Papers 2107, Program on the Global Demography of Aging, 2007), which states: “Accounting for the simultaneous determination of the key variables - growth, education, fertility - the results show that the indirect effect of health is positive and significant.” Ibid. John Luke Gallup and Jeffrey D. Sachs, “The Economic Burden of Malaria”, CID Working Paper No. 52 (July 2000), p. 7. 3