Impact of health programmes on child mortality in Africa: evidence from Zaire and Liberia.

The Mortality and Use of Health Services studies were designed to measure changes in the coverage of health services and in infant and child mortality rates associated with the implementation of the Combatting Childhood Communicable Diseases programme. The papers in this supplement provide the results of research carried out in areas of Zaire and Liberia. Data from these studies provide credible evidence that these programmes actually reduced mortality. The proportion of children dying by their fifth birthday declined by 17% in Zaire and by 32% in Liberia. These estimates of programme impact are consistent with the increases in the use of health services and with data from similar studies in other countries. Results of these surveys suggest that child survival programmes in Africa can reduce mortality substantially in populations living in different environments at very different initial levels of child mortality.