The United Nations warned on Monday that reducing international aid could stop years of progress in reducing child deaths and might even make things worse. A new report from UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank does not mention the United States directly. Furthermore funding cuts could mean less help for people in Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and many more countries.
However, it comes at a time when President Donald Trump’s government has cut most programs run by USAID. It is America’s main foreign aid agency, which once had a yearly budget of $42.8 billion.
Fouzia Shafique said the global health community is extremely worried about the situation we are seeing. She is a UNICEF’s Associate Director of Health.
The United States reports warns that cutting aid money will have the worst effects in places where child deaths are already high. Such as sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia.
If funding for life-saving services dwindles, many nations may witness a surge in newborn and child fatalities, the report warned.
In 2023, child deaths under the age of five continued to decline, with 4.8 million deaths recorded. This included 2.3 million newborn babies who died in their first month.
For the first time, the number of child deaths dropped below five million in 2022.The latest numbers show that child deaths have dropped by 52% since the year 2000.
However, Shafique emphasized, “4.8 million deaths is still 4.8 million too many.”
Since 2015, progress in saving children’s lives has slowed down because funds were redirected to fight COVID-19. This could lead to a worrying trend.
“Reaching a record low in preventable child deaths is a big success,” said United Nations executive director Catherine Russell. “But without the right policies and enough funding, we could lose all the progress we have made.”
“We cannot let that happen,” she added.
Some effects of funding cuts are already visible, such as a shortage of health workers, closed clinics, problems with vaccination programs, and a lack of essential supplies like malaria treatments.
Ethiopia is seeing a big rise in malaria cases, said Shafique.
However, the country does not have enough malaria test kits, insecticide-treated bed nets, or funds for spraying to stop disease-carrying mosquitoes.
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