Bangladesh: innovating for health

Writing earlier this year, as part of a series of country case studies on good health at low cost, Dina Balabanova and her colleagues concluded that “Bangladesh has made enormous health advances and now has the longest life expectancy, the lowest total fertility rate, and the lowest infant and under-5 mortality rates in south Asia, despite spending less on health care than several neighbouring countries”.1 Why is this so?

Having published analyses of health systems in several Asian nations—China, India, Pakistan, and countries in the southeast Asian region—we now turn our attention to Bangladesh2—7 to investigate one of the great mysteries of global health. This is a story not only of unusual success, but also one that describes the frailties and challenges that lie ahead as the country charts a course towards universal health coverage.