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.
Competing Interests
CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES: Rachel Vreeman, MD, MS, FAAP is on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the International AIDS Society CIPHER program (Collaborative Initiative for Paediatric HIV Education and Research). Other authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Specifically, no authors have directly received USAID funding within the last 3 years.
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