Foreign Aid and Vaccination Coverage: Subnational Evidence from Nigeria

Sammanfattning

This paper examines whether foreign aid is associated with improvements in vaccination coverage atthe local level. While a large literature studies the effects of aid on aggregate health outcomes, lessis known about whether aid translates into improvements where it is actually delivered. To addressthis question, I combine geocoded data on aid projects from AidData with individual-level datafrom the 2008 and 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys. The analysis exploits variationin aid exposure across birth cohorts within Local Government Areas (LGAs), comparing childrenborn in the same LGA in years with and without active aid projects. Across all specifications,the results indicate that exposure to health aid at birth is associated with a higher probability ofreceiving the BCG vaccine. In addition, exposure to both all aid and health aid is associated withincreases in the probability of receiving the measles vaccine. Overall, the findings suggest that aidcan help improve access to vaccination services at the local level. At the same time, the weakerand less consistent results for DPT3 and full vaccination indicate that aid may be more effective inimproving uptake of relatively simple vaccines requiring limited contact with the health system.