Sociology

Do non-governmental organizations impact health?: A cross-national analysis of infant mortality

Document Type

Article

Abstract

According to world polity theory, international health and womens non-governmental organizations should improve health in poor nations by providing health, reproductive, and educational services. However, there are suggestions that their effectiveness may be limited by a variety of factors. These factors include their projects being small-scale, ad hoc, or reformist. Further, non-governmental organizations may implement projects that satisfy donor interests rather than a local populations needs. In order to evaluate these claims, we construct cross-national models of infant morality from 1990 to 2005 for a sample of 74 poor nations. Initially, we find no support for world polity theory claims that health and womens non-governmental organizations decrease infant mortality. However, we re-specify the models to test a political opportunity structure hypothesis that democracy enhances the ability of non-governmental organizations to improve health. We do so by including interaction terms between these two variables and find substantial support for this hypothesis. Specifically, the results suggest that health and womens non-governmental organizations decrease infant mortality in democratic but not repressive nations. © The Author(s), 2010.

Publication Title

International Journal of Comparative Sociology

Publication Date

2-2010

Volume

51

Issue

1-2

First Page

137

Last Page

164

ISSN

0020-7152

DOI

10.1177/0020715209347066

Keywords

cross-national, infant mortality, non-governmental organizations

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