Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity

Reducing Child Mortality in Low Income Countries: The Power of Knowledgeable Parents

May 27, 2008

Why do ten million children continue to die each year from preventable causes? There is good clinical evidence, and some examples, illustrating that child deaths could be rapidly reduced through inexpensive measures readily available today. However, despite sometimes good intentions, neither foreign assistance nor local governments have achieved enough. A bias towards public provision of clinical services, the use of ineffective interventions, and the failure to exploit parents' natural love for their child, may explain lack of success. Effective Intervention, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is currently implementing two large aid projects in west Africa and India, designed as randomized controlled trials, that aim to rapidly reduce child deaths and test whether modest foreign assistance can truly save large numbers of lives.

On Tuesday, May 27, 2008 Founder and Executive Chair of Effective Intervention Peter Boone joined us for this seminar. Mead Over, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development, served as a discussant and April Harding, Visiting Fellow, Center for Global Development, moderated the talk.