Environmental health and the multidimensional concept of development: the role of environmental epidemiology within international cooperation initiatives.

"Environmental health" and "multidimensional development process" are two concepts that have been used and discussed since the last two decades within different conceptual frameworks. The present paper presents and discusses an interpretation concerning the interconnection between these two concepts in line with the integrated approach to health of environmental epidemiology and the multidimensional development approach of socio-economic analyses. The paper aims at investigating the environmental health and the condition of environmental health deprivation affecting populations in developing countries, and proposes to consider them as central issues for integrated environmental epidemiological and socio-economic investigations. The relevance and impact of this interdisciplinary approach to investigate the different and interconnected dimensions of poverty are here discussed. Moreover, this paper points out the role of technical and scientific cooperation in environmental epidemiology presenting the experience of a bilateral scientific cooperation between the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and IFA, an Ecuadorian non-governmental organization.