Description:
This paper analyzes complementarities
between different Millennium Development Goals, focusing on
child mortality and how it is influenced by progress in the
other goals, in particular two goals related to the
expansion of female education: universal primary education
and gender equality in education. The authors provide
evidence from eight Sub-Saharan African countries using two
rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys per country and
applying a consistent micro-econometric methodology. In
contrast to the mixed findings of previous studies, for most
countries the findings reveal strong complementarities
between mothers educational achievement and child
mortality. Mothers schooling lifts important demand-side
constraints impeding the use of health services. Children of
mothers with primary education are much more likely to
receive vaccines, a crucial proximate determinant of child
survival. In addition, better educated mothers tend to have
longer birth intervals, which again increase the chances of
child survival. For the variables related to the other
goals, for example wealth proxies and access to safe
drinking water, the analysis fails to detect significant
effects on child mortality, a finding that may be related to
data limitations. Finally, the study carries out a set of
illustrative simulations to assess the prospects of
achieving a reduction by two-thirds in the under-five
mortality rate. The findings indicate that some countries,
which have been successful in the past, seem to have used
their policy space for fast progress in child mortality, for
example by extending vaccination coverage. This is the main
reason why future achievements will be more difficult and
explains why the authors have a fairly pessimistic outlook.