Reducing Child Mortality
- Target: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-5 mortality rate
Several regions with high child mortality rates have made progress toward the goal to reduce those rates by two-thirds. Diarrhea, malaria and pneumonia are the cause of more than half of children’s deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the regions that faces the most difficulties with child mortality. On a global scale, deaths within the first month of life were 32 per 1,000 live births in 1990, and under-5 mortality rates were 91 per 1,000 live births.
Certain childhood diseases increase the challenge of meeting this goal: in 2008, out of all the deaths of children age 5 and under, 14 percent died due to pneumonia, another 14 percent due to diarrheal diseases, and 41 percent due to such neonatal causes as preterm births, asphyxia and sepsis. Malaria and AIDS, which are both widespread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and Southern Asia, also account for a large number of child deaths.
With so many severe diseases spreading throughout developing regions, and the lack of education and knowledge of the mothers residing in them, reducing child mortality faces significant struggles. Each individual MDG influences the others: children of educated mothers are more likely to survive; malnutrition and lack of access to clean water and sanitation are crucial in the survival of young children; immunization against measles worldwide helps save millions of children. However, the downward spiral of funding is one of the main challenges for this fourth goal.
The rate of deaths within the first month of life reduced to 23 per 1,000 in 2010. Furthermore, the number of child deaths under age 5 has reduced from 12 million in 1990 to about 9.2 million in 2011. Programs such as breastfeeding campaigns or the “Nothing But Nets” campaign to prevent malaria have helped. However, many developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa still face extremely high rates of child mortality, and the goal will likely not be met by 2015.
Nina Mansour is an intern at InterAction.
In the year 2000, after a decade of conferences and summits, the UN created the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a series of eight goals with concrete targets to achieve by 2015. With just three years until December 31, 2015, the world is beginning to evaluate how close we are to achieving the MDGs and to look forward. This eight-part blog series highlights some of the successes and challenges as we close out 2012.
