Health Poverty Action works to strengthen poor and marginalised people in their struggle for health.

Our distinct approach can be summarised as a combination of three factors:

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 often in reality might do little more than change the cause of death. Tackling numerous factors together saves lives.