Why USAID is shifting maternal health funds toward Africa, Asia

Thursday, June 26, 2014

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — The US Agency for International Development announced today that 26 countries have done so well at achieving maternal and child health goals that they’re now on their own. Their funding will instead go to 24 countries where mothers and children are still dying at alarming rates.

The countries losing their funding, many in Latin America, are those who have made significant progress on maternal and newborn health, family planning, and similar efforts. Peru, for example, has reduced its newborn mortality rate by 77 percent and maternal mortality rates by 70 percent.

“We see phasing out of funding as a success,” says Kelly Saldana, deputy director of the office of health infectious diseases at USAID. “The burden of disease really shifted away from Latin America to Africa and Asia.”

Source: The Christian Science Monitor (link opens in a new window)

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