Mexico will improve its maternal, neonatal and post-neonatal health services with a loan of up to $350 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The project is aimed at improving the health status of children under five without access to social security health services.

The project is expected to help reduce the country’s nationwide infant mortality by 7 percent from 12.9 to 12.0 (per 1,000 live births) by supporting high impact health interventions to ensure effective coverage of specialized, highly complex care for childbirth complications as well as training for mothers in the care of children in the first year of life.

The objective of this component is to ensure health services funding are used to support health-insurance coverage for the vulnerable populations.

The expansion of coverage is expected to help lower the neonatal mortality rate in births in currently uninsured families from 9.8 per 1,000 live births to 8.1.