New Estimates of Global Development Assistance to Child Health Since 1995

In the past decade, accelerated, yet insufficient progress in child mortality reduction to reach MDG 4 and a rapid increase in development assistance for health (DAH) to resource-poor settings for financing child health-related activities have been observed. Given the increase in DAH to child medical care from 1.67 billion in 2003 to 4.44 billion in 2010 (in constant 2010 US$), tracking of donor funding to child health is crucial for assessing aid effectiveness in improving child health.

This study provides new time-series cross-country estimates for global development assistance to child health with a new definition based on a demographic model of determinants of child survival over an extended time series from 1995 to 2010. Data comes from several sources, including the OECD's Creditor Reporting System. Unlike previous studies, we estimate aid from non-medical sectors, such as sanitation, food, and nutrition, which directly influence child health. Our study uses a multi-disciplinary approach to estimate DAH and improves the estimates in terms of their comparability and completeness. We conduct a descriptive study on the portion of assistance allocated to countries with the highest child mortality rates and expect to see an increase of DAH to child health both at the global level and in countries with high mortality rates.