What does the World Health Report 2000 bring to Lebanon?

The World Health Report 2000 has been the subject of extensive debate. The authors highlight in the following, what they consider as major limitations that are either inherent to methods followed and the validity of data used, or related to the particular situation of Lebanon. This article tackles the first two of the set goals i.e. level of health and responsiveness as well as the overall system performance. The Report clearly states that extensive use has been made of estimates of indicators, and that there were often conflicting sources of information on these indicators. In the case of Lebanon, data was not available for most of the values used. In fact, the last national population census was conducted in 1932, and vital registration is incomplete. Therefore, one would question the value of the estimates, based on which the calculations were made for Lebanon, such as Life tables, and Causes of Deaths. Finally, the authors conclude that despite the critics, embarking in this exercise is useful for Lebanon, particularly at this stage, for monitoring the reform process in the health sector.