increase substantially were donors to direct more of their assistance to public health measures and essential clinical services, especially in low-income countries, and focus correspondingly on capacity building, research, and reform of health policy.

A related, critical question is the following: Can the ideas and methodologies recommended in WDR be absorbed by developing countries? Some will be able to adapt and adopt these approaches fairly straightforwardly into system design, financing, and management; others, principally lower-income countries, will not. Thus, strengthening capacity to absorb the concepts and approaches described in the WDR could be a logical part of a next agenda in health development.