E.H. Christopherson Lecture: lessons for the United States From the Worldwide Child Survival Revolution

It is time to apply in the United States' principles that are emerging from a series of World Summits and United Nations Conference on Children, Environment, Population, Women, and Social Development. After years of top-down programs supported by international agencies, which have made some significant contributions in promoting activities such as childhood immunization but are having problems of sustainability, we need to focus now on integrated human development. The past tendency in international assistance to concentrate on economic development has not helped the people in greatest need. There is growing realization that what improves the quality of life most is what people do for themselves. Sustainability requires social mobilization at the local level. There are thousands of integrated, social development projects around the world that demonstrate the power of community-based, participatory approaches and we know how such local programs can be made to work under any political or economic system. What we haven't learned is how to "go to scale" in extending such projects to cover larger populations. A promising approach seems to be using successful local projects upgraded into Centers for Action Learning to promote the adaptation of science-based innovations to everyday life in a whole region of a country.