JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE

The world's poor children We must not be unduly pessimistic about the progress of children in poor countries. Over the past generation, in developing countries as a whole, life expectancy has increased from 40 to 63 years, infant mortality has been halved and incomes per person have doubled1. At the same time, in 1996 we are faced with enormous problems. A billion people live in dire poverty. There is growing inequality both between and within developed and developing countries, and many observers believe that economic structural adjustment programmes recom-mended by our international financial institutions have contributed to these evils2. In the South, at least 800 million people are deprived of any health care whatsoever3, and in the industrialized world we live, t