Public Health and Conservation: the Real Engines of Growth

True wealth multipliers:

"Once invested, it said that every dollar spent on clean water and sanitation in the Third World, for instance, could bring $14 in benefits ranging from lower health care costs to higher work productivity and school attendance.

'Conservation of habitats and ecosystems are also cost effective when compared with the short-term profits from environmentally damaging activities' including dynamite fishing, mining or deforestation, it said.

Every dollar invested in fighting land degradation and desertification, like building terraces to stop hillside erosion, could generate at least $3 in benefits, the Poverty Environment Partnership report estimated."