by Julian Lampietti (Author), David G. Lugg (Author), Philip Van Der Celen (Author), Amelia Branczik (Author)

Although at different stages of development, the countries of the Western Balkans Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia face similar challenges in transforming and modernizing their agri-food sectors. Their rural sectors have lagged behind the rest of the economy in growth and poverty reduction, their agri-food sector is undercapitalized and highly fragmented, and their agro-processing capacities are limited.

The last 10 years have seen a resurgence in interest and research around inequalities in the health sector. While a disproportionate share of the new research has focused on measuring inequality in the health sector, work is emerging on how to understand the causes of inequality and on identifying successful approaches for tackling the problem. This book summarizes the operational lessons emerging from this new focus. It is intended to be an operational resource for change agents within and outside government in low and middle countries committed to improve access and use of critical health services to income poor and social vulnerable populations.