How to support and improve the Reach Every Mother and Child Act

As some experts have noted, the Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2015 is likely to accomplish a lot of good, helping to save 600,000 mothers and 15,000,000 children by 2020 according to USAID’s estimates. Right now the bill has a small number of bipartisan sponsors in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Though there are differences between the House and Senate versions, the act generally implements a strategic approach to ending preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths in target countries. This involves:

• Establishing a Child and Maternal Survival Coordinator to foster broad coordination with other governments, organizations, and institutions

• Scaling up effective, evidence based interventions with a focus on country ownership

• Designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs to improve program sustainability and outcomes

• Creating better public-private financing mechanisms

Given the magnitude of this legislation, I think it is justifiable to take action to support it, though as a Center for Global Development writer points out, it may be worthwhile spending time considering which performance metrics are used to evaluate the program.

To support or comment on this bill:

• Use the form here to quickly write and automatically send letters to your Senators and Representatives

If you’d like to do even more:

• contact the Foreign Policy aides in your members' offices

• have a conversation with them about co-sponsoring these bills.

If you'd like more guidance on taking action, send an email to Ken Patterson ([email protected])