Accessible and edited by authors based at a top institution, this book provides readers with an excellent summary in an easy-to-read style of this burgeoning field of research.

In this volume Bennett, Gilson and Mills have gathered together essays written by academics and experts in the fields of health policy and economic development, each underscoring the need for political commitment to meet the needs of the poor and the development of strategies to build this commitment, covering:

• evidence regarding the links between health, economic development and household poverty
• evidence on the extent to which health care systems address the needs of the poor and the near poor
• innovative measures to make health care interventions widely available to the poor.

Current and topical, this book is of great relevance to policy makers and practitioners in the field of international health and development and researchers engaged with global health and poverty as well as being ideal reading for students of international health and development.

"The essays provide excellent documentation of the links between health, economic development, and poverty alleviation. Thanks to the lack of economic jargon and lesser reliance on quantitative methods, this work is accessible to a wide readership ranging from undergraduate students to researchers interested in international health and poverty reduction. It is required reading for policy makers and practitioners looking for innovative measures in health financing and service delivery that can better reach the poor. -- M. Q. Dao, Choice, 2008

Sara Bennett is the Manager of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, based at the World Health Organization. Lucy Gilson is Professor of Health Policy and Systems at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Associate Professor at the Centre for Health Policy at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Anne Mills is Professor of Health Economics and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.