Improved health in the world's poorest countries can benefit both companies and global economic growth, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, told BBC News Online's Jorn Madslien in an exclusive interview during 23 March, 2001,which hold good even now.
Invest now in improved health in the developing world, and you will reap massive returns later.
“It is not only a direct investment in healthier people who are more productive. You also create a market which, globally, is important”
Dr Gro Harlem BrundtlandWHO
"If you invest in health, you increase economic growth and economic development," Dr Brundtland said. And this, she argued, is true both for companies motivated by profits and for struggling nations trying to escape poverty.
"If you invest in health, you increase economic growth and economic development," Dr Brundtland said. And this, she argued, is true both for companies motivated by profits and for struggling nations trying to escape poverty.
"Enlightened self interest compels both industrialised country governments and private corporations to do what it takes to drastically reduce the current burden of disease in the developing world," Dr Brundtland said. Healthy workers are efficient workers .
"The people that you have as your staff in your company are of course an investment. You train them, you need them. If they are healthy, they will be at work and they will be more productive," Dr Brundtland reasoned.
"So in the same way that you invest in machines and technology and other goods that create your wealth, you certainly have to invest in the people that you have as your staff".
Personnel managers in the political West, which comprises the rich countries in the world, have known this for a long time. Now, says Dr Brundtland, the message is beginning to reach companies in Africa, South America and Asia as well. Many European and US companies operating in these regions are beginning to invest in their staff, in their staff's families, and in the communities in which they work, she said.
"A healthy environment and more healthy staff is an asset for the company. Not only for their image, but even in more complete terms in the way they are able to make profits," Dr Brundtland said.
