USAID’s Role in Saving Children’s Lives: Past Legacy and Future Directions
For more than 60 years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a major funder of efforts to improve maternal and child health (MCH) across many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). From 2000 to 2022, the global under-five mortality rate declined from 76 to 37 deaths per 1000 live births.1. Though this progress stemmed from the cumulative efforts of many organizations, governments, and health care workers, a 2022 causal analysis by Weiss et al. (the most recent analysis available), demonstrated that from 2000 to 2016, high USAID funding for MCH and malaria independently reduced under-five mortality by more than 20 deaths per 1000 live births compared with control regions.2.
Authors
- Alexandra Coria (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8725-8535)
- Naveen Thacker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6275-4690)
- Rachel Vreeman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5460-8204)
- Brian Wahl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0037-7364)
- Liesl Zühlke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3961-2760)
Institutions
- South African Medical Research Council (ZA)
- Mount Sinai Health System (US)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Yale University (US)
- Gaziantep Children's Hospital (TR)
- Yale New Haven Health System (US)
- Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (US)
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PEDIATRICS
- Published
- 2025-04-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2025-071260
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Global Maternal and Child Health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 13.98
Funders
- United States Agency for International Development
- International AIDS Society