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Copenhagen Consensus Center

How to save 16,000 children’s lives

Fewer than half of all children receive every immunization dose. Around two child deaths in ten are caused by diseases that could be prevented by vaccines.

How Increased Access to Family Planning Can Help Haiti

During the 1970s and 1980s, a successful family planning program with strong private and public sector support helped contribute to a decline in Haiti’s fertility rate.

    Health: Child and Mother

    The Ministry of Public Health and Population, in collaboration with local and international organizations, has made great strides in reducing the infant mortality rate, leading to a decrease from 80 deaths per thousand live births in 2000 to 59 deaths per thousand. However, Haiti still has the highest infant mortality rate in the Caribbean. 

    Focusing on mother and child health can lead to inter-generational benefits.

    One intervention is to improve immunization coverage. The biggest causes of vaccine-preventable death are measles and neonatal tetanus. 

    Other approaches are to focus on child health initiatives, or to focus on improving the health of both mothers and children by investing in maternal health

    Improved family planning can lead to benefits for mothers and their offspring.

    Costs and Benefits of Vaccinating Children 0-1 in Haiti

    New research by Magdine Flore Rozier Baldé, economist, Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation explores how to expand recent efforts to reduce this death rate through expanding immunization coverage.

    Costs and benefits of child immunization and management of common childhood illnesses in Haiti

    Immunization can prevent the conditions that result in illness and death among children, and common causes of illnesses that result in death – such as diarrhea and pneumonia – can be managed. This analysis estimates costs and the health impact of increasing coverage from current immunization levels to 80% or 95% in 2018, and maintaining each level until 2036. 

    Costs and benefits of providing skilled care before and during birth in Haiti

    Packages of interventions are proposed, that would be provided during pregnancy: routine antenatal care visits, as well as skilled care at birth and immediate postnatal care. Also examined are services provided through emergency obstetric care, which is essential to manage complications arising at birth, as well as an expanded combination package where safe abortion and post-abortion care is part of the services provided.

    Costs and Benefits of Expanding Sexual Reproductive Health Services in Haiti

    The research studies the benefits and costs of investing in family planning programs. Besides reducing fertility and maternal and child mortality, this is likely to result in higher levels of female education, improvements in women’s general health, increases in female labor force participation and earnings, and increased child health.