Series contains records maintained by the various divisions and departments responsible for the population, health, and nutrition sector while producing and disseminating research, and developing and analyzing sector policy and strategy. The records reflect discussions about the department's research priorities, methods and techniques of analysis, the quality of its work and ways to improve it, and its relationship to the country-based work carried out in the Bank's regional offices.
Records in the series were primarily created by the Policy and Research Unit (PHNPR), established in 1979 and dismantled in the 1987 Bank-wide reorganization. PHNPR's functions were continued by succeeding units through to the Health, Nutrition, and Population Team (HDNHE), but no longer as a separate division dedicated to policy and research. Many of the records were maintained by PHNPR Chief Nancy Birdsall during her tenure (1984 - 1987) as well as Senior Demographer K.C. Zachariah, Population and Human Resources Division, Economics Department and later the Policy and Research Division, PHNPR (1970 - 1987).
Record types include, but are not limited to: research proposals; terms of reference; back-to-office reports; contracts; agreements with consultants, universities and other third parties who are doing research for or with the division; initiating briefs for policy papers; statistical and other data; published and unpublished reports; drafts and final working papers; briefing notes; external reports and publications; surveys and questionnaires; budget reports and other financial records of research expenditures; and related correspondence.
Staff and consultant research papers
The largest portion of records in the series relate to research and concept papers authored by various department and division staff and consultants. Apart from a single file dated 1970, the papers were primarily accumulated between 1979 and 1988. Records are organized by author and contain draft papers and correspondence about comments on papers. Senior staff and other individuals represented in the files include, but are not limited to: Directors Kandiah Kanagaratnam, John North and David de Ferranti; PHNPR Division Chief Nancy Birdsall; Senior Health Advisor Anthony Measham; Senior Nutrition Advisor Alan Berg; and other Bank staff outside of PHN such as James Lee, Ernest Stern, Shahid Husain, and Barbara Herz. General sector topics are covered as well as topics related to a particular country or region. Subjects include: family planning; rural contraceptive needs; marriage and migration; sub-Saharan Africa population policy project; public health planning; primary health care; health expenditures; education; and economic topics such as liberalization and taxes. A smaller volume of files relate to papers presented at symposia or conferences.
PHNPR Division subject files
The series also comprises a large volume of subject files maintained by the former PHNPR Division between 1976 and 1987. Some of the files were created by staff of the former Population and Human Resources Division. The subject files cover a wide range of the division's activities such as policy research and analysis, preparing studies, project support, conferences, and other knowledge and learning events. These files contain internal memoranda, outgoing letters, reports, background papers, conference reports and agenda, and other records.
Several subject files refer to a specific country project funded by IDA credit (Gambia National Health Project) and covers project appraisal, budget, and analysis on lending in the sector. Files concerning research projects are indicated by the RPO (Research Project Output) code assigned to projects throughout the Bank by the Development Economics department. The RPO material was mostly maintained by Dr. Susan Cochrane, senior economist, PHNPR. RPO files relate to the projects Education and Rural Development in Nepal and Thailand (RP0671-49) and Determinants of Fertility in Egypt (RP0671-49). Included are: memoranda and letters discussing project status updates and workshops on population research; draft surveys and questionnaires with annotations; questionnaire instructions and code sheets; interviewer manual; proposals submitted to Research Committee; expense and budget reports documenting financing through the Research Committee; preliminary chapters; data tables; and background reports. Most of the material is in English but there are also questionnaires and data in Thai. A memo from Susan Cochrane (DEDPH) to the Steering Committee on Determinants of Fertility in Egypt is also included.
Other subject files pertain to poverty guidelines and contain memoranda, reports, and manuals on the Bank's measurement of poverty as it relates to lending to the lower income countries and to alleviate urban poverty. There are also subject files related to health care, health financing, health program evaluation, health services research, pharmaceuticals and drugs, health organizations, diseases, health resources development, irrigation health risk study, and the interaction between health and water supply. Subject files on nutrition relate to nutrition research, programming, nutrition service delivery, and food subsidies and pricing. Population files concern population aspects of education projects, population studies, fertility, contraception, and population policies.
Files related to conferences include the 1984 International Conference on Population, Conference on Research Priorities for Sub-Saharan Africa in Bellagio 1985, Task Force for Child Survival Cartagenaconference, and also seminars, workshops, and EDI training. There are also files related to data on women in development, household living standards, and files reflecting PHN's input on President Clausen's speeches.
Other PHNPR subject files relate to partnerships with international organizations such as World Health Organization (WHO), academic institutes, committees and working groups, and inter-agency partnerships such as the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), the Control of Diarrheal Diseases (CDD) Program, and the Onchocerciasis Control Program (OCP) or river blindness. The onchocerciasis file (1980 - 1984) contain memoranda, a report of an independent commission regarding economic analysis of OCP reflecting the involvement of Andre Prost and Nick Prescott (PHN) and comments on reports by Karen Lashman Hall (PNHPR). There are also files regarding WHO and Bank cooperation for HIV/AIDS and comments on the draft proposals on structure and coordination of the WHO Special Programme on AIDS.
Working papers series and publications
The series also contains a substantial volume of records related to the PHN Technical Note working papers series authored between 1976 and 1992, arranged by the series or issue number. Files primarily contain printer's copies and research data on topics including cost benefit and cost effectiveness studies, demographic data, AIDS research, health care management, and Safe Motherhood (also known as maternal and child health and mortality).
Thereare also reports and other records related to the PHN Policy Research Working Papers (WPS numbered series) covering the years 1989 to 1993 and include annual sector reviews which outlines population, health, and nutrition lending, health system trends, costs, and resources. Although most of the publications and papers were forwarded to the Bank's Internal Documents Unit and were eventually digitized, other papers contained in this series were disseminated through PHN's successor, HDNHE.
Series also contains handwritten notes, regional data tables for population and mortality projections and labor force data for member countries, as well as memoranda accumulated between 1973 and 1990 in preparation for the annual World Development Reports (WDR). Several files relate to the 1984 WDR that focused on economic performance and population growth, including comments on drafts.
There are also three files (1993 - 1996) related to the best practices book authored by PHN Senior Nutritionist, Dr. Judith McGuire, and consultant Rae Galloway, entitled "Enriching Lives - Overcoming Vitamin and Mineral Malnutrition in Developing Countries" published by the World Bank in 1994. Includes three floppy diskettes of the Spanish version, hard copy of the English master for correction, bound French version, and drafts.
Senior Demographer K.C. Zachariah records
Series also consists of a set of chronological files and subject files maintained by Dr. K.C. Zachariah, Senior Demographer between 1970 and 1987 beginning when Zachariah was in the Population and Human Resources Division, Economics Department and later the Policy and Research Division (PHNPR). The chronological files span 1971 to 1984; however, files for the years 1979 and 1981 are not present. There are two files of incoming correspondence from 1983 to 1987, and several subject files containing research proposals, final versions of staff working papers, and study papers authored by Zachariah including Population Projections for Bank Member Countries 1970 - 2000. Specific subjects covered in Zachariah's records include family planning, income distribution and fertility rates, demographic measures, and migration in specific countries or regions. There are also back-to-office reports and terms of reference documents regarding Zachariah's research missions and attendance at international conferences, terms of reference for consultants, and administrative records related to the recruitment of consultants and research assistants.
Health Sector Strategy paper
Series contains records regarding the development of the HDNHE 1997 Health Sector Strategy paper, from 1995 to 1997. Included are minutes of strategy retreats, strategy and concept paper drafts and final version, notes, and Sector Board minutes in which concept papers were reviewed and discussed.
Tobacco control policy
Also included in the series are records related to tobacco control analysis and policy created between 1988 and 1999 which were primarily maintained by Dr. Prabhat Jha, health specialist, Human Development Department (HDD) and later HDNHE. Records include correspondence, mainly containing comments on report outlines and background papers, draft papers, trip reports, conference publications, handwritten research notes, and statistical tables and charts regarding smoking prevalence, tobacco, cigarette consumption, GDP, and other data. The Bank had organized a consultation session on the economics of tobacco control in 1997 at the tenth World Conference on Tobacco in Beijing that was part of an ongoing review of the Bank's own control policies. A Bank-sponsored international conference on the economics of tobacco control in Cape Town followed in 1998. Files contain Beijing conference abstract booklets and programme, and Cape Town conference funding report and press conference reports. The Bank and WHO began a global study in 1997 on the economics of tobacco control for countries, particularly low-income and middle-income countries and a small volume of files relate to statistical data compiled, as well as the study team's 1999 publication led by Jha and Frank J. Chaloupka entitled "Curbing the Epidemic: Governments and the economics of tobacco control". There isalso correspondence with UN Agencies including FAO, WHO, UNCTAD, and ECOSOC dating from 1989 to 1995 that represents the Bank's early work on tobacco by Senior Economist Howard Barnum.