A new UNICEF report shows that if current trends continue, the world will not meet Millennium Development Goal 4 — to cut the rate of under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015. Even worse, if current trends continue, the goal will not be reached until 2028. The cost of inaction is alarmingly high: as many as 35 million more children could die mostly from preventable causes between 2015 and 2028, if the global community does not take immediate steps to accelerate progress.
Not all the news is bad, however. A few low-income countries with high child mortality rates, including Bangladesh, have already reduced their under-five death rates by two-thirds or more since 1990, reaching Millennium Development Goal 4 for the reduction of child deaths ahead of the 2015 deadline.
The UNICEF report provides many other kinds of good news as well. It shows that dramatic reductions in child survival are possible. Globally, the annual number of under-five deaths fell from an estimated 12.6 million in 1990 to approximately 6.6 million in 2012. Over the past 22 years, the world saved around 90 million lives that might otherwise have been lost.
“Yes, we should celebrate the progress,” said UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake. “But how can we celebrate when there is so much more to do before we reach the goal? And we can speed up the progress — we know how, but we need to act with a renewed sense of urgency,” he said.
Just over a year ago, the governments of Ethiopia, India and the US, together with UNICEF, launched Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed, a global effort to stop children from dying of causes that can be easily prevented.
So far, 176 governments have signed a pledge, vowing to accelerate progress on child survival. Hundreds of civil society groups, religious groups and private individuals have also pledged support to the shared goal of giving every last child the best possible start in life.
The 2013 Progress Report on Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed examines trends in child mortality since 1990, analyses the main causes of under-five deaths, and highlights national and global efforts to save children’s lives. The progress made to date is due to the collective efforts of governments, civil society and the private sector, as well as the increase in affordable, evidence-based interventions, such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets, medicines, vaccines, proper breastfeeding, nutritional supplements and therapeutic food, re-hydration treatment for diarrhoea, and improved access to safe water and sanitation, among others.
The report shows sharp reductions in preventable child deaths across all regions of the world, and at all levels of national income, including low-income countries. In fact, some of the world’s poorest countries have made the strongest gains in child survival since 1990. A few low-income countries with high child mortality rates, such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal and United Republic of Tanzania, have already reduced their under-five death rates by two-thirds or more since 1990, reaching Millennium Development Goal 4 for the reduction of child deaths ahead of the 2015 deadline.
Globally, the pace of decline has accelerated with the annual rate of decline tripling since the 1990s. Sub-Saharan Africa has also accelerated its rate of decline, with its annual rate of reduction increasing more than fivefold since the early 1990s. In the past seven years, Eastern and Southern Africa have been among the best performing regions in the world, reducing under-five mortality at an annual rate of 5.3 per cent in 2005-2012.
In contrast, West and Central Africa recorded the lowest level of progress on child survival, compared to other regions around the globe. The region also has the highest rate of mortality, with almost one in every eight children dying before the age of five. West and Central Africa have seen virtually no reduction in their annual number of child deaths since 1990.
Pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malaria remain leading causes of child deaths globally, claiming the lives of around 6,000 children under five each day. Under-nutrition contributes to almost half of these deaths.
The first month of life is the most precarious for a young child. In 2012, close to three million babies died during the first month of life, mostly from easily preventable causes.
Reversing these trends requires immediate action on multiple fronts, as outlined in the Millennium Development Goals: reducing poverty, decreasing maternal mortality, boosting education and gender equality, and promoting environmental sustainability.
“Progress can and must be made,” said Lake. “When concerted action, sound strategies, adequate resources and strong political will are harnessed in support of child and maternal survival, dramatic reductions in child mortality aren’t just feasible, they are morally imperative.”
-With The Independent input
