Abstract

This paper examines the context and content of public health influence on national development.
The paper further considers the roles that public health education play in ensuring that the
citizenry remain healthy and capable to drive the development of a nation. The paper supports
that educating the public on health issues that impact their health is key in ensuring people
maintain a good and healthy habits which will improve their availability to work and be
productive. The paper contends that unless policies directed toward improving the public health
services are instituted, the productivity, on the average, of a group of people will dwindle which
has a bearing on the growth and development of a nation. The paper addressed the challenges
faced by the public health establishments in their bid to ensure optimal well-being of the general
populace. The paper therefore concludes that unless a definite structure is put in place to manage
the delivery of services by the public health workers, the citizenry will be directly impacted as
they will not have access to vital information, advice and service rendered by the public health
workers.

Key words/Phrases: Public Health, National Development

Acronyms:

HIV – Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus

WHO – World Health Organization

SAP – Structural Adjustment Programme

MDG – Millennium development Goals

TB - Tuberculosis

AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

GDP – Gross Domestic Products

Definitions

Health education

According to Bedworth and Bedworth (2010), Health education is a process affecting intellectual,
psychological and social dimensions that increase our capacity to make informed health decisions
affecting self, family, and community well-being. It is one of several processes for improving
human effectiveness. They went further to state that the aim of health Education is to help
people achieve health by their own actions and efforts. Health Education begins, therefore, with
the interests of people in improving their conditions of living—in developing a sense of
responsibility for their own health betterment and for the health of their families and
government.

According to Wikipedia, an online resource, the World Health Organization defined Health
Education as comprising of consciously constructed opportunities for learning involving some
form of communication designed to improve health literacy, including improving knowledge, and
developing life skills which are conducive to individual and community health.

Health Education as an educational field, for developing public health workers, is focused on
building skills needed for the preventive protection of human health geared towards improving
the productivity of the citizenry (Khan,2002). It teaches both public health workers and the
general population to actively and proactively develop and protect health in all its forms (social,
psychological and physical) and maintain some form of ownership for them.

The development of health education is to meet the above objectives and also to contribute to
the prevention of at-risk behavior of the citizenry(Khan,2002). it is critical coach and train workers
and the populace to understand their own behavior and that of others in the context of different
life situations. Implementation of such education requires specific methodological approaches,
the search for innovative strategies that represents current national and social interests and
needs (Watkins, 2005).

The goal of the health education, therefore, is to develop the life skills of every individual, at
different capacities, so that their devotion to health and ability to behave responsibly to their
own health and health of others, are among their lifelong priorities (Musgrove, 2004). According
to Musgrove (2004), the training on public health provides a person with professional
preparation in public health education, including training in the application of selected content
from relevant social and behavioral sciences used to influence individual and group learning,
mobilization of community health action, and the planning, implementation, and evaluation of
health programs.

National development

According to SlideShare, an online resource, national development is the ability of a country to

improve the social welfare of the people, for example, by providing social amenities like quality
education, potable water, transportation infrastructure, medical care etc.

According to the United Nation decade report, national development is growth plus change and
the change is in social and cultural as well as economic development (UNESCO, 2014).

According to Lawal and Abe (2011), National development can be described as the overall
development or a collective socio-economic, political as well as religious advancement of a
country or nation, best achieved through development planning, which can be described as the
country’s collection of strategies mapped out by the government.

According to Adekoya et al (2012), Development is the transformation of a society or country

into socially, economically, politically, educationally, orderly, and materially desirable conditions,
with the aim of improving the quality of life of the people. It is also referred to as the uniform
distribution of resources, the integration of the people into national economy; it is a socio-
economic process which seeks to bring about a more equitable distribution of resources and
income within the society (Adekoya et al, 2012)

Nwanegbo and Odigbo (2013) assert that development could be seen as the process of
empowering people to maximize their potentials and the ability to exploit nature to meet daily
human needs. It can also be seen as a process by which quality of human lives and capacity to
surmount daily needs are considerably improved. They also noted that it is reasonable to know
that development is not only an economic exercise, but also involves both socio-economic and
political issues and pervades all aspects of societal life
Introduction

The world has experienced exponential economic growth in recent times though it can be said
that the growth is not evenly distributed considering all the countries in the world. In a
developing country like Nigeria, growth has been marginal as seen from the UNDP end-point
2015 report of the yearly fiscal growth of the economy. According to a report released by the UN
on population, education and development in 2003, the slow rate of economic growth has, in a
way, affected the economic power of the citizens negatively, without bringing any significant
improvement in the standard of living. This situation as described, which is made worse by the
rising cost including that of health services, has created a significant financial gap in the public
health services in the nation. This, in turn, has led to a severe problem of health services
distribution. According to Ibama and Dennis (2016), the provision of quality health services today,
in most countries including Nigeria, only benefits those with the financial means for paying for
such services. Those who are poor and especially in the rural areas have little or nothing to
benefit for health services.

According to OyeAdeniyi (2014), the fundamental strategy of development is geared toward

helping less developed countries and societies meet requirements for adequate food, health,
education and other societal needs. Hence, health education becomes a critical objective of
development. Similarly, a fundamental strategy is utmost effective when regarded as a means to
increase individual, communal and national productivity and not simply as a welfare services
program.

Expenditures and budgets on health are viewed as an investment in human resources and
contributing to productive capacity. A similarly puzzling problem is the extent to which better
health status is the result of any particular health program interventions as compared to
improved economic and social conditions (UNDP,2015). Both are important but their relative
importance differs from country to country and from period to period. According to Oshodin
(2014), better data and analysis are necessary, not only elucidate the interrelationships between
health and development. but to measure the costs and benefits of specific health interventions.
To make health services affordable to all, there is a need to include health issues into top policy
making agenda. Health should be changed from the old notion of absence of illness and replaced
with a more ideal definition as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. Health
should be regarded as the capability and capacity of being able to pursue one’s goal, to acquire
knowledge, skill and be educated as well as to develop. This improved idea for health, not only
admits but agrees to the range of socio-economic and physical environmental factor that
contributes to health and also give health a prominent role as an important prerequisite for
economic development (Grosse and Harkavy,1980).
The central position of human resources development in the overall process of development of
societies is also well known. In the heath sector, human resources need to be developed, not
only in terms of increasing the number of human resources, taking into consideration that
indicators for human resources in almost every developing nation are below the accepted rate,
but also in capacity and in skill (WHO,2014). This is also complicated by the problem of mal-
distribution of resources in the health sector. In many countries, in spite of the fact that rural
needs are overwhelming, most of the doctors and professional health workers are located in the
larger cities. Moreover, the quality of health services is below the expectations of most societies.
Therefore, there is a need for a fundamental reorientation of health services and health
manpower development to meet present and foreseeable future community needs (Ominde et
al,1972). This reorientation should emphasize the need to benefit users rather than the providers
of health services. According to the WHO 2014 report on SAP, there is a need to conserve scarce
physical and human resources such that provision of health education is paramount rather than
elaborate disease intervention measures.

In spite of extreme differences in health status between the more developed and less developed
countries, trends of infant mortality and life expectancy show substantial improvements in both
types of country between 1950 and 1980 (Roemer and Roemer,2004). According to Roemer,
these improvements may be attributed to three types of change:

1. Socio-economic development with decolonization, increased industrialization, growth of

gross domestic product, urbanization, the gains of women, and enhanced education.
 2. Cross-national influences due to greater international trade, the spread of technology,
and widespread affirmation of human rights.
3. National health system development through expanded governmental health programs.
Further improvements will depend on greater strength in public sector health services
rather than private sector services which aggravate inequities.

Nowadays, most countries, including developed countries are multiplying reforms such as the
OBAMA CARE in the United States of America (USA) to reduce health care cost, make it accessible
for all people, categorized based on income, so as to have a healthy and productive population.

According to a report by Tchoungui et al (1995), Cameroon, classified as a lower middle-income

country with low economic growth is similar to many developing countries with high burden of
diseases (both communicable and non-communicable) and concurrent development challenges.
The diseases pledging the health of people reduce their productivity, life expectancy, savings, the
education of children and eventually economic growth. However, Tchoungui et al (1995) asked
the following questions

1. Can the problem of low economic growth of Cameroon be solved by public health
investments?
2. How effective can the public health investments be in ameliorating the population’s
health and the economic growth of Cameroon?
3. Can the public health investments largely curb down the challenges faced by the public
health sector?
4. Do the various government (public) health investments contribute to the economic
growth of Cameroon