Reducing child mortality in the last mile: lessons from Uganda

Organised by

• Department of Economics

The delivery of basic health services remains abysmal in many parts of the world where child mortality is high. We study the impact of a novel health care delivery program implemented in Uganda, which relies on a new figure of Community Health Workers with financial incentives. In partnership with two international NGOs, we run two large-scale randomised controlled trials, involving a total of more than 700 villages and 17,000 households, and find that: a) in the proof-of-concept study the program is highly effective in reducing child mortality at low cost; b) the improvement in basic healthcare induced by the program mitigates the consequences of adverse climatic shocks hitting the study locations; c) as the program scales-up, program adaptation is essential to retain effectiveness.

Co-authors: Martina Björkman Nyqvist, Stockholm School of Economics and Jakob Svensson, Stockholm University