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| 24 Jan 2010 Ted Lankester |
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| The next five years provide a narrow window within which to draw on these lessons, and accelerate progress in the 30 high-burden countries that account for eighty per cent of under-five deaths. In a world where a global economic downturn is squeezing households, government budgets and aid for the poorest countries, the limited progress that has been made is now threatened. This report sets out an agenda for meeting that challenge. |
In the year 2000, world leaders gathering at the United Nations collectively committed to a series of goals to tackle poverty and its underlying causes. The eight Millennium Development Goals, set for the year 2015, include ambitious but achievable targets for halving hunger and extreme poverty, attaining universal primary education and cutting child and maternal deaths. Five years before the target date, an analysis of progress is due: in the second half of 2010, the international community will again convene at the UN to review the goals and identify the steps needed to reach them.
From the perspective of children living in the world’s poorest countries, this review is desperately needed. While movement towards all of the goals is uneven, and on current trends most will be missed, it lags furthest in the area of health. Only 30% of the progress needed to reach the MDG 4 target of cutting child mortality by two thirds by 2015 has been achieved. Progress on the closely connected target of cutting maternal deaths is even further off track. The upshot is that over 24,000 children continue to die each day before they reach their fifth birthdays. Put simply, this is the biggest child rights violation of our age. Overwhelmingly, these deaths are caused by poverty: ninety-nine per cent of under-five child deaths take place in developing countries, the clear majority of them from easily prevented neonatal complications and infections, and conditions such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. A lack of proper nutrition and safe water and sanitation are a factor in over half of all these deaths.
Despite claiming the lives of almost nine million children each year, this global toll is largely a silent emergency, attracting remarkably little high-level political attention, either in the worst-affected countries or at an international level. The resulting suffering and waste of human potential is doubly scandalous because the solutions, centred on preventive measures and family and community-level care, are proven and highly cost-effective. The experience of low income countries such as Malawi and Liberia, which, through a mix of high-level political commitment and focussed policies, have made substantial cuts in child deaths, demonstrates that progress can be made, even in the most resource-constrained contexts. Equally, the experience of countries such as Kenya and Burkina Faso, which since 1990 have gone backwards or stalled, testifies that business as usual will not achieve the health MDGs.
The next five years provide a narrow window within which to draw on these lessons, and accelerate progress in the 30 high-burden countries that account for eighty per cent of under-five deaths. In a world where a global economic downturn is squeezing households, government budgets and aid for the poorest countries, the limited progress that has been made is now threatened. The World Bank estimates that a further 2.8 million children could die between now and 2015 unless immediate action is taken, adding further urgency to the challenge of child health. This report sets out an agenda for meeting that challenge.
http://www.childhealthnow.org/docs/pdf/Child_Health_Now-Report.pdf
http://www.childhealthnow.org/docs/pdf/Child_Health_Now-Report.pdf
“Child Health Now” is World Vision’s first global campaign focused on a single issue:reducing the preventable deaths of children under five.In the two minutes it will take you to read this preface, more than 30 childrenunder the age of five will die. Most of them will succumb to preventable causes, suchas diarrhoea, pneumonia, childbirth complications and malaria. Twenty-four hoursfrom now, the total will exceed 24,000.
This is more than just a problem facing the developing world. It’s a “silent”emergency. And it is, I believe, the greatest child rights violation of our time.That’s why World Vision has launched its “Child Health Now” campaign, a five-year commitment to reducing these deaths. Our campaign will draw on the lessonslearned in our 1,600+ community programmes where our development strategiesare fully linked to our advocacy efforts with local and national government bodies.Through this campaign, we will support communities in raising their voices abouttheir right to quality health care, and we will press national governments to meettheir responsibilities to children, mothers, families and communities throughouttheir country.
We will also join hands with local government and NGO partners tocooperatively address the critical health-related issues in specific communities.Our experience has demonstrated that effective health care – through simple,preventive, cost-effective measures – is a leading factor in community development.World Vision is making a significant financial commitment to health in its ownprogrammes, of (US) $1.5 billion over the next 5 years.
But working locally won’t be enough. World Vision will also urge wealthynations to fulfil their promises to improve conditions in the developing world.More than 190 world leaders have committed to achieve the UN’s MillenniumDevelopment Goals by 2015. World Vision’s Child Health Now campaign calls onthe international community to rededicate itself to these goals.
We want you to join us. Read this report, and then urge your elected leaders toput child health at the top of their agendas. Let them know you believe 24,000 childdeaths every day are not acceptable, and ask them how they’re going to help.Together, we can make a difference. Together, we can make Child Health Nowa priority.
Kevin Jenkins
President and CEO
World Vision International
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