Background Universal coverage of health care is now receiving substantial worldwide and national attention, but debate continues on the best mix of financing mechanisms, especially to protect people outside the formal employment sector. Crucial issues are the equity implications of different financing mechanisms, and patterns of service use. We report a whole-system analysis—integrating both public and private sectors—of the equity of health-system financing and service use in Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania.

This report is produced under a renewed partnership between United Nations (ESCAP), ADB, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support national and regional efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It explores five megatrends that will determine whether everyone will be able to thrive and fulfill their expectations for a better life in the future: regional economic cooperation and integration; rural–urban transitions; demographic changes; ICT access and connectivity; and demand for natural resources. It ...

Income inequality has been a growing concern since Global Financial Crisis. But how do regional institutions contribute to the debate on income equality? ASEAN’s normative framework is underpinned by the principle of non-interference while ASEAN has a mandate to establish an equitable economic community post 2015. This study examines if regional income inequality is considered a regional problem, and if so, is the concern significant enough to overcome the principle of non-interference allowing ASEAN to play a greater role in policy formation. ...

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a large and rapidly-growing problem in China and other middle-income countries. Clinical treatment of NCDs is long-term and expensive, so it may present particular problems for equality and horizontal equity (equal treatment for equal need) in access to health care, although little is known about this at present in low- and middle-income countries. To address this gap, and inform policy for a substantial proportion of the global population, we examined inequality and inequity in general health care utilization ...

This paper provides an overview of research on income inequality in China over the period of economic reform. It presents the results of two main sources of evidence on income inequality and, assisted by various decompositions, explains the reasons income inequality has increased rapidly and the Gini coefficient is now almost 0.5. This paper evaluates the degree of income inequality from the perspectives of people’s subjective well-being and government concerns. It poses the following question: has income inequality peaked? It also discusses the ...

The 10 states of Southeast Asia have combined to form the developing world’s most successful and durable regional grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Na-tions, ASEAN. Economic integration among them is high and increasing. The ambi-tious ASEAN Economic Community is scheduled to take effect from December 2015, and should further accelerate this integration. But the socio-economic and institution-al disparities among them are also very large. This paper therefore asks the ques-tion, does it make sense to contemplate a ‘Southeast Asian ...