US funds maternal health supplies for poorest nations
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The US government agreed to a one-year, $25 million deal with UNICEF to continue providing essential medications and equipment to some of the world’s poorest countries.
For months, aid workers worried about disruptions to maternal and newborn health supplies after the previous agreement, managed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), expired. The deal will benefit at least 15 nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and Mali, ensuring continued access to items like oxytocin and amoxicillin.
The previous USAID program, which ran from 2016 to 2023, spent over $5 billion on global health supply chains, with maternal and newborn health items accounting for less than one percent of that total. The US is shifting its approach to global health aid, aiming for recipient countries to become more self-reliant and reducing reliance on contractors like Chemonics, whose program was slated to end.
However, transitioning to new bilateral health aid deals and establishing new ordering procedures has proven challenging, with lead times for orders often exceeding a year. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, intends to take over funding for maternal and child health by next year but faced uncertainty during the transition.
Alongside the UNICEF agreement, the US has extended delivery deadlines for some malaria and HIV supplies and partnered with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to facilitate ordering.
