A pregnant woman in eastern Congo cannot wait for a policy meeting. That is why the news on US maternal and newborn health funding matters. Washington has struck a one-year deal to keep medicines and equipment flowing to mothers and babies in some of the poorest places on earth.
What the Deal Covers
Under the US maternal health deal, UNICEF will now buy and deliver maternal and child health supplies, plus some nutrition items. UNICEF says the agreement is worth $25 million and lasts one year. It covers at least 15 countries previously supported, including Congo, Haiti and Mali. No orders have been placed yet, though UNICEF expects them soon.
The arrangement replaces a contract run through the private firm Chemonics under the now-defunct USAID, which expired last month. It follows nearly 18 months of disruption after Washington froze and then cut back many aid programmes under its “America First Global Health Strategy.”
Empty Shelves in Congo
The damage is already visible. In Nyangezi, eastern Congo, midwife Alice Bulambo says the supplies once donated by USAID are simply gone. The area’s main government warehouse has run out of stock for over a year, according to the local chief medical officer. Clinics buy medicine at market prices, and he says the cost of care has doubled or even tripled, while health workers are also fighting Ebola.
For families already living on little, that is the difference between a clinic delivery and a risky birth at home.
A Small Fix for a Big Hole
Some perspective is needed. The $25 million is a small slice of the aid lost to the cuts. Maternal and newborn items made up under 1 percent of the more than $5 billion the old USAID supply programme spent between 2016 and 2023, so the price of a mother’s survival is modest next to the risk of losing it.
Washington wants countries to stand on their own feet. It has signed more than 30 bilateral health deals that require governments to co-finance. Congo hopes to take over its own supplies by next year. But former USAID officials note that orders can take a year or more to arrive.
So this one-year pause is a bridge, nothing more. Global maternal healthcare in poor countries depends on whether governments, donors and suppliers can build something sturdier before it ends.
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