The medicine shelf refills: a $25 million deal keeps mothers' and babies' supplies moving

In Nyangezi, in eastern DR Congo, midwife Alice Bulambo had run out of oxytocin — the medicine that stops dangerous bleeding after childbirth — and of a basic antibiotic used for mothers and children, as the warehouse serving her hospital sat empty for over a year. A new one-year, $25 million agreement between the US government and UNICEF means the children's agency will now buy and deliver maternal, newborn and child-health supplies, plus some nutrition items, to at least 15 countries that had relied on the donations, including DR Congo, Haiti and Mali. The deal bridges the gap left when the previous supply contract lapsed last month, so clinics are not left buying life-saving basics at market prices while longer-term arrangements are worked out.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: funding & finance