Aid Groups Urged to Revamp Operations in Poor Countries

International health and development organizations are calling on aid groups in developing countries to change their approaches because some of the organizations are inadvertently contributing to the long-term damage to health systems of those countries, reports Propublica.org.

The announcement came at the annual meeting of the Global Health Council, in Washington, at which groups were asked to sign a voluntary code of conduct.

The code urges aid groups to avoid hiring government employees, such as doctors and nurses, away from agencies in the very countries the aid groups are trying to help.

Officials at health and development organizations said that the existence of tens of thousands of unregulated aid groups has become problematic for government health managers in developing countries because the aid groups each have their own ways of providing aid. The aid groups have also contributed to health-care inequities, according to the groups that formed the code.