Abstract

Desarrollo humano y salud en América Latina y el Caribe. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2003, vol.29, n.1, pp.8-17. ISSN 0864-3466.

After important antecedents, such as the Roma's Club Report (1972), the What to do? Report (1975), the "Adjustment with Human Face" from the 1980's and the ECLA's thesis of productive transformation with equity, in 1990 a group of researchers made the "Report on Human Development 1990" for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). It assumes the challenge of conforming a new dimension for human development. The evolution during this short period of time of the concepts concerning this topic and the so-called dimensions of human development are reviewed here. The presentation deals with the trends of the economic and social development of Cuba and the fundamental features of its development policies from 1960 up to now and with how they were applied to the health field, as well as their outcomes. The results attained by Cuba in the sphere of human development, in general, and of health development, in particular, have surpassed the expectations, according to the levels and trends of economic growth. On the other hand, on studying Latin America, it is given an alternate vision to that of the UNDP for evaluating human development that integrates for each country the achievement in relevant areas of human development, the equity of human groups in the interior of the country and the impact of the economic resource on human development. By applying the proposed index, it is obtained a hierarchical arrangement of the countries of the region regarding their human development, which in our opinion is more integral and just than the obtained with the Human Development Index (HDI) used by the UNDP. For all countries, excepting Cuba, the result attained with the suggested index is lower than the HDI, which may mean that the gap in the attainment of remarkable aspects of human development, the absence of equity of the human groups in the inerior of the countries and the insufficient impact of the economic resource on human development affect the global human development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Keywords : HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; HEALTH; LATIN AMERICA,THE CARIBBEAN.

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