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CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT: REACHING THE POOR

The World Bank, in collaboration with The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and the governments of the Netherlands and Sweden, will host
a conference on “Reaching the Poor with Effective Health, Nutrition and
Population Services – What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why” in Washington,
D.C., February 18-20, 2004.

The recent growth in knowledge about inequalities in access to health,
nutrition, and population services has revealed unacceptable disparities
between better-off and disadvantaged groups. Such disparities are found
not only in routine health services but, often, also in programs
undertaken especially to benefit the poor. Lessening these disparities
by increasing the availability of effective services for the poor has
thus become an imperative for the many institutions and individuals
committed to alleviating the many manifestations of poverty. Ensuring
that services reach disadvantaged groups is also central to ensuring
that the poor participate fully in progress toward the Millennium
Development Goals.

As an initial step toward identifying approaches that can reach the poor
more effectively, the World Bank and other agencies have been seeking to
take stock of the experience gained through recent field programs and
projects. One component of this effort has been the Bank's Reaching the
Poor Program, undertaken in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and
the Dutch and Swedish Governments. The Program constitutes an effort to
carry forward the work of the Bank's 2004 World Development Report: Making
Services Work for Poor People.

The February conference will provide an opportunity for participants in
the Reaching the Poor Program and for other researchers to present their
findings to an audience of policy makers and analysts, and for the
audience to assess the findings' implications for program and policy
design. For more information, visit:

http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/healthandpopulation/Brochure/main.htm

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