Wealth redistribution policies to mitigate the impact of development assistance defunding: a retrospective evaluation and forecasting analysis up to 2030.

Implementing wealth redistribution policies could prevent up to nearly 30 million deaths by 2030 in low-income countries facing aid cuts.

• Why it matters: The decline in development assistance amid rising global inequalities threatens health progress and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, especially in vulnerable populations.
• What they did: The study analyzed data from 59 low- and lower-middle-income countries, estimating the impact of aid reductions on mortality from 2002 to 2021 and modeling ten redistribution policies to forecast future outcomes.
• The result: All ten policies significantly reduced mortality, with the highest estimated to avert over 29 million deaths, demonstrating that redistribution strategies can mitigate health impacts of aid cuts and save millions of lives.