Question

Determine the extent to which an unhealthy population can have a negative impact on the progress toward sustainable economic development of a Caribbean economy of your choice. Use empirical data to support your arguments.

Guiding Questions/areas to be covered

1. Explain the concepts of health, human capital and economic development   –
2. What indicators should be in place if economic development is to be achieved?
3. Determine the impact of loss of skilled personnel in key sectors such as health education and industry.

Answer 1

An unhealthy population can adversely affect the progress towards the economic development of any country. More recently formed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will also be affected. Goal 3 of SDG deals with good health and well being. Its objective is to achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.

Some concepts given below will explain the importance each one of them holds in the overall economic development of an individual and the economy.

Human Capital: It is primarily the stock of knowledge and skills that an individual possesses. If a country would not have a health population, its economic development in terms of GDP and other factors will automatically be affected. It will be difficult for the country to grow because of loss of skilled personnel in different sectors of the economy.

Let's consider the example of Trinidad & Tobago. It spends approximately 6% of its GDP on health expenditure. The life expectancy of the country is 68 (males) and 76 (females) which can be improved by improving the health expenditure in key sectors, making the people aware of importance of individual health and taking appropriate steps in terms of schemes and programmes for overall betterment of the population.

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Link for reference - https://www.who.int/countries/tto/en/