Tallying Abandonment in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: Consequences of Counting in the Afterlife of Aid.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from one rural area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in this article I trace Community Health Workers' sentiments of abandonment, which they expressed after the termination of an internationally funded global health program. The program's open inclusion criteria meant that many children were enrolled during its implementation, signifying its success. However, after the program ended, the enumeration of many children produced residual feelings of abandonment. Grounded in a historical context, I illuminate the specific consequences of counting social lives and the ways in which global health programs and their practices continue to have a phantom presence after they end.