Poor Countries Must Be Proactive In Cutting Child Deaths: UNICEF

UNICEF noted in its State of the World's Children Report 2008 that awareness of child mortality and other global health issues is at an all time high thanks to the efforts of new public-private initiatives such as the GAVI alliance that promotes vaccinations, and the Roll Back Malaria campaign. However, ‘it has been argued that global partnerships are often donor- and commodity-driven rather than country- and people-centered,’ the report said. …

Health programs must be integrated into strategies and policies that tackle the root causes of discrimination and exclusion, it said. …To this end, healthcare should be tailored to the needs of individual patients and treat them as active participants in their own treatment rather than just passive recipients. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

AP notes that “A newborn child in Sierra Leone has the lowest chance in the world of surviving until age 5, with the prospects almost as bad for children in Angola and Afghanistan…

In 2006, nearly 9.7 million children died worldwide before reaching the age of 5, mostly from preventable causes such as diarrhea, malaria or malnutrition, UNICEF said in its annual report. …

The deaths could be prevented by simple health care measures, such as vaccination, insecticide-treated bed nets and vitamin supplements, the report said. But the measures must be taken all together and applied in each village to reach every child, even in the remotest regions of the world, it said. …

The data was mainly drawn from statistics and studies by the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the UN Populations Division.” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Reuters writes that “…UNICEF warned that despite recent advances, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East are falling short of a UN goal to reduce child mortality by two thirds between 1990 and 2015, to less than 5 million deaths per year. …

The toughest steps toward the UN target lie ahead - attempting to boost children's life expectancy in countries ravaged by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and plagued by weak governance and poor health systems, it said. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

Kyodo News adds that “…Almost one-third of the 50 least developed countries have reduced child mortality rates by 40 percent or more since 1990, which proves that progress can made in poor countries if political will and sound strategies are in place, according to the report.

‘Investing in the health of children and their mothers is a sound economic decision and one of the surest ways for a country to set its course toward a better future,’ said Joy Phumaphi, Vice President of the Human Development Network at the World Bank in a statement.” [Kyodo News/Factiva]
Source: By The World Bank