Read the opinion piece in The Washington Post by Mona Hanna (founder and director of Rx Kids, pediatrician, and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University) and Miriam Laker-Oketta, (senior research advisor to GiveDirectly, medical doctor, and researcher) about why cash should become a cornerstone of maternal and child health policy.

“After years spent treating the effects of poverty with medicine alone, we grew tired of writing prescriptions that couldn’t fix the root cause. What good is an iron supplement when a mother can’t afford food to go with it? Why fund prenatal clinics if women have no money for transportation? Why tout the benefits of breastfeeding when a mom has to return to work just days after giving birth?”

Read Devex‘s latest article about the impact of cash for maternal and child survival.

“In many African countries, families finance roughly 40% of health services out of pocket, according to the Resilience Action Network Africa, or RANA. This forces painful trade-offs: choosing between food and hospital bills, or selling land to afford medication, Aggrey Aluso, executive director at RANA, said. . . . To plug these gaps, GiveDirectly is testing a direct funding model aimed at the root causes: poverty and access.”