Foreign aid sanctions set back decades of progress on maternal and child mortality, a new Stanford-led study in The Lancet Global Health finds.

Researchers analyzed three decades of sanctions on foreign aid to assess their impact on health. They found that aid sanctions to low-resource countries lasting five years or more can negate 64% of progress against maternal mortality, 29% of the progress for infants, and 26% for children under 5. They hope the work can help government officials better understand and address how foreign policy decisions affect the well-being of local populations.

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