USAID recently unveiled its Roadmap to 2030 for Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition, a plan that seeks to help countries reach the target date for completing part of their Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) targets in 2023. USAID’s Roadmap to 2030 identifies areas where the agency can shift its work in order to help countries achieve certain targets for completing SDG 3, many of which poverty and access to basic needs directly impact.

Current Data

Globally, the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) has fallen according to UNICEF, and as of 2021 stands at 38 deaths for every 1,000 births. While some of USAID’s “target countries” have made tremendous progress in maternal and child health and are currently on track to meet some of their SDG 3 goals by 2030, many have not, according to the agency. In order to meet their SDG 3 goals, countries must meet four criteria by 2030 according to USAID:

• A projected under-five mortality rate (U5MR) of ≤25.
• A nation-specific projected maternal mortality ratio (MMR).
• A projected neonatal mortality rate (NMR) of ≤12.
• A projected postneonatal mortality rate (PNMR) of 13 for children under five.

Very few countries are on track to achieve some of these goals, according to the framework. Out of 24 target countries, six are on track to meet the U5MR target, and projections have indicated that three will meet their specific MMR target, three will meet their NMR target and 12 will meet their PNMR goal.

The Goal of the Roadmap

The self-stated main goal of USAID’s Roadmap to 2030 is to help put target countries on track to meet their SDG 3 targets and to “save lives, decrease morbidity and disability, and increase the potential of women, newborns, children, families, and communities to thrive.” Through a series of five intermediate results, the agency seeks to achieve some of the following in regard to maternal and child health:

• Improve access to pre and postnatal care, as well as childcare.
• Improve health care systems and providers’ ability to deliver high-quality care.
• Support programs that work with local actors.
• Continuing to improve the nutritional status of women and children, while also increasing access to water and sanitation.

Many of these proposed programs would combat the effects of poverty on child health, putting target countries closer to being on track to meeting SDG 3 in 2030.

Shifts in USAID’s Work

While significant worldwide progress has occurred toward achieving SDG 3, which seeks to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages,” the COVID-19 pandemic has threatened “decades of progress” toward achieving the goal, according to the United Nations. As a result of the pandemic, 22.7 million children did not receive basic vaccinations in 2020, putting children at significant risk of infection or death from preventable illnesses.

Due to the fact that many countries are at risk of not meeting some of their SDG 3 goals, USAID’s Roadmap to 2030 identified three areas where they can shift their current work in order to further assist these countries. One of these areas is in primary health care approaches, as the pandemic “underscored the need for more resilient systems,” according to USAID. On top of millions having missed essential vaccinations, the report also projected that 3.6 million children would experience growth stunts due to the disruption to global food systems in 2022 as a result of the lasting effects of the pandemic.

The other two areas are localization and private sector engagement, both of which the agency seeks to use in order to provide more local engagement in combating these issues — ensuring that progress toward the goals involves both local government and private sector participation. 

With COVID-19 having exposed flaws in some approaches to combating the effects of poverty on maternal and child health, USAID’s Roadmap to 2030 identifies and adjusts approaches in order to further combat these issues. With the pandemic on the back burner, this roadmap provides a much-needed “renewed sense of urgency” on the issue of maternal and child health and represents an effort to put countries back on track to meeting SDG 3 by 2030.

– Mohammad Samhouri
Photo: Unsplash