An empirical assessment of the relationship between Official Development Aid and child mortality, 2000–2015

Abstract

To analyze the effect of Official Development Aid (ODA) dollars on child mortality over the course of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals initiative. The relationship between child mortality and Official Development Aid over the duration of the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) is examined here using a longitudinal panel of country-level data from the World Bank and the United Nations. An Ordinary Least Squares regression approach was used with country-level fixed effects. Models were estimated for the full sample and by Human Development Index development strata (high, medium, and low developed countries) with clustered standard errors. ODA appears to be most strongly associated with decreases in child mortality in Medium Developed Countries. Every one dollar per capita increase in ODA is associated with a 0.035 decrease in child deaths per 1000 births. Significant gains were made in decreasing child mortality over the last 15years. The need for more progress remains. Allocation of ODA to developing countries can be an effective policy tool in achieving public health goals.