Childhood health and the changing distribution of foreign aid: Evidence from Nigeria’s transition to lower-middle-income status
With sustained economic growth in many parts of the developing world, <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>n increasing number of countries <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>re transitioning <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>way from the most subsidized development finance <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>s they exceed income <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd other qualification requirements. Cross-country evidence suggests that Development <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">A</span>ssistance Committee (DAC) donors view the crossing over of the World Bank’s International Development <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">A</span>ssociation (IDA) eligibility threshold to signal that <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span> country needs less <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>id, with subsequent reductions in both IDA <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd other donors’ concessional funding. Within the health sector, it is particularly important to understand the implications of these status changes for children under five years of <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>ge since improving early childhood health is critical to fostering health <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd social <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd economic development. Therefore, we examine the implications of the IDA transition by measuring the extent t which World Bank commitments—including both IDA <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd IBRD—<span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>re directed to infant <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd child health needs in Nigeria. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models were used in <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span> difference-indifferences (DID) strategy to compare World Bank IBRD/IDA lending before <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>fter the crossover to regions with varying initial levels of under-five <span class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">a</span>nd infant need.
