Reducing the Cost of Remoteness: The Effects of Community Health Workers Programs on Maternal and Children’s Health in Madagascar

Catalina Herrera Almanza, Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University, will present “Reducing the Cost of Remoteness: The Effects of Community Health Workers Programs on Maternal and Children’s Health in Madagascar” on Friday, April 6^th from 10:30am-12:00pm in Room 250A, Agricultural Administration (2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210).

Abstract: Lack of primary health care use can increase preventable maternal and child deaths in low-income countries. Community health workers can be an alternative supply to deficient formal health care provision among underserved poor populations, but the empirical evidence on their impact on health outcomes is inconclusive. We analyze the short-term effects of a large-scale community- based health intervention on fertility and children’s health in Madagascar. Besides disseminating information to generate demand for primary care, the program aimed to decrease the non-monetary costs for remote households by training volunteer community health workers in delivering modern family planning and managing childhood illness. We use a triple difference model that combines the roll-out of the program across time and regions with geocoded data on the households’ distance to the closest health facility. Our findings indicate that the program decreased the probability of conception among women living close to the health facility but did not have a differential effect among women living in remote areas. In contrast, we find an improvement in vaccination uptake in areas distant from the health facility. We find suggestive evidence that men’s bargaining power over intrahousehold decision making constitutes a barrier for women to control fertility in remote areas. (Co-authored by Maria F. Rosales-Rueda)

This seminar is sponsored by the AEDE Graduate Student Association and is open to the public. No RSVP is required.