Group of Children

Health Poverty Action

Health Poverty Action works to strengthen poor and marginalised people in their struggle for health. We prioritise those missed out by almost everyone else.

Our work falls into four broad categories:

In-country development programmes We work in partnership with poor and marginalised communities in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America to help them improve their health, prioritising the communities almost everyone else in the world has forgotten.

We address the full range of factors that impact on health. As well as strengthening health services we work on areas such as nutrition, water, sanitation, immunisation, income generation and women’s empowerment. Tackling one cause of poor health in isolation can give the appearance of improving health, but often in reality might do little more than change the cause of death.  Tackling numerous factors together saves lives.

Influencing policy and practice
We are driven by our conviction that the denial of health rights is not acceptable, and we are committed to a vision of health for all.  We know that it is possible for poverty to be eradicated and health to be improved, but that this requires major changes to our world, including paradigm shifts in social, economic and environmental policy.  So we campaign for change.

Responding to emergencies
When emergencies occur, we work with those affected to mobilise all possible resources for urgent response.

Providing consultancy and other contracted services
Health Poverty Action’s 28 years of development experience means we are well placed to offer consultancy services, which we have been doing for the past five years. These services provide important benefits for the poor as well as generating income, and all profits are ploughed back into developing our work.