What we do

Health for all is a right not a privilege – a right denied to many by a global system stacked against them. It doesn’t have to be this way. Health Poverty Action acts in solidarity with health workers, activists and communities worldwide to improve health and challenge the causes of poverty. When we stand together, we are all powerful.

We do this in three distinct ways:

We approach health as an issue of social justice

We recognise that the greatest causes of poor health worldwide are political, social and economic injustices. This is a global scandal which causes unnecessary suffering on a massive scale. That is why we tackle the root causes of poor health as well as the symptoms, and why our name is Health Poverty Action.

We prioritise those missed out by others

Development organisations tend to cluster together which leaves large populations with almost no support at all. People may be living in hard to reach areas, or are difficult to support for some other reason. We make these most neglected populations our highest priority.

We address the full range of factors which impact on health

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