A dark but influential program that has provided detailed information on public health to about half of the nations of the world will be folded following the freezing of the Trump administration on foreign aid.
With the funding of the United States Agency for International Development, demographic and health investigations were the only sources of information in many health and maternal and childish mortality, nutrition, reproductive health and HIV infections, among many other health indicators.
The polls collected data in 90 nations with low and medium income, which therefore used information to set reference parameters for health at local, national and global level, including the 2030 sustainable development objectives adopted by the United Nations Member countries.
Tuesday, the administrators of the program learned that it was “ended for convenience of the United States government”, actually effective, according to an e -mail seen from the New York Times. He was ordered to “stop all the work, end the subcontracts and do not place further orders”.
The Trump administration is dismantling USAID; Thousands of layoffs are expected in the next few days. Without future surveys, it will be almost impossible to measure the impact of those cuts in foreign aid on citizens in nations without substantial health infrastructures.
Some global health experts reacted with dismay to the program.
“It is really difficult for me to understand how you could implement weighted programs in public health and monitor progress towards strategic objectives if you do not have the type of data available at the DHS,” said Win Brown, a demographer of the University of Washington.
“You cannot keep track of what is happening, you cannot form strategies, you cannot make changes based on the way your data is changing,” he added.
It is not clear what could happen to the research that has been collected in recent decades or to the investigation projects in progress in 25 countries. “We have to find a way to save those data and I think it is feasible,” said Livia Montana, the technical director of the program.
The surveys have been conducted since 1984. The funding amounted to about $ 500 million in five years, about half of which came from Usaid and half by other donors, including the nations themselves.
Some countries, such as India, had almost completely assumed the financing of their polls. Research is widely seen as indispensable.
“The impact of these interruptions will reverge through local, regional, national and global levels,” warned a group of dozens of experts on February 13th.
Some United Nations organizations evaluate the health data of children and adolescents in some countries, while others measure family income or agricultural production.
But the demographic and health surveys, collected every five years, have recorded all the critical aspects of the health of families, including the data on the mortality, height and state of weight and nutrition of children and adults, education and literacy, as well as access to clean water and cell phones.
“The malnutrition indicators are among the most important”, because they can reflect a series of social factors, said dr. Montana. The polls also evaluated the malaria indicators and health facilities separately.
Material and childhood mortality estimates are basically important in countries that have no good death recording systems. The polls have also measured the size of the family, which can indicate the availability of family planning, but also reflect wider social factors, including access to education for girls.
Dr. Brown used surveys, for example, to compare the contraceptive use between women in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and India over the course of decades. “In a survey like DHS, you are on the ground to talk to real people, on the curve of their real houses in real community,” he said.
Like other projects financed with foreign aid, the program was under a stop-work order before the resolution. All except 11 of his 80 staff were put on leave without remuneration and his relationships with contractors ended a few weeks ago.
Find out about the arrest, some national governments expressed concern and empathy, and many asked if they could pay to finish the job. Others took it for a long time, said dr. Montana.
“It’s a bit like they experienced more than this kind of things in which politicians change immediately,” he said.