Today, if you were looking for a coherent idea of how the international community views progress toward reducing child mortality, you would have had difficulty finding it. Both optimistic and pessimistic attitudes toward improving the life expectancy of children have been evidenced recently, particularly in response to an article published in a medical journal by UNICEF worker, Danzhen You.
As of 2009, global child mortality levels have reached a landmark moment, falling below 1990 levels by about 3.5 million from 12.5 million to 9 million. The New York Times has reported that these improvements are largely due to international cooperation between grassroots organizations, governments, and global civil society organizations such as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI).
The Times further cited some of the many specific health improvements that are responsible for the progress: a rise in the awareness that breastfeeding is beneficial for infants, simple-technological interventions (such as oral-rehydration therapies for diarrhoea, which – along with pneumonia – remains the leading cause of deaths among children, globally), improved sanitation and health care, family planning, reduced mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the proliferation of birth control in developing countries, and vaccinations.
Success stories such as Malawi, Niger, Mozambique, and Ethiopia – all of which have reduced the number of child deaths per thousand by over 100 since 1990 – have been referred to as illustrations of the potential for progress even among the poorest of the poor, so long as reforms are human-oriented and pragmatic. Malawi, for instance, has pursued careful health care reform and increased the number of accessible health care professionals.
At the same time, some critics have balanced these optimistic ‘golden’ scales by contemplating the gloomier side of things (one could ask, “What about the other 9 million who still die?”). Such critics report that the reduction in child mortality in the last decade represents less than a one-third reduction of the 1990 level. Without more rapid progress, it is impossible for child mortality rates to decline enough to meet the target for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which is a two-thirds reduction of the 1990 level by the year 2015.
Child mortality also remains concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa (accounting for roughly half of all deaths) and South Asia (accounting for about 30% of all deaths). In fact, the CBC reported that 50% of the total number of child deaths occurred in only 5 countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, and China. Nigeria alone is responsible for 12% of the global total.
Danzhen You, in his article in the Lancet (an academic medical journal), described current progress as insufficient. Others have called it completely ‘unacceptable.’ You stated that “among the 67 countries with high mortality rates (40 per 1,000 or more), only 10 are on track [to meet the MDG targets].”
The work of humanitarians and international development workers always appears to be infinite, the resolution of one crisis seeming to transition chaotically into the next embryonic emergency.
But, one clear fact remains, as UNICEF Executive Director, Anne Veneman, pointed out: the reductions in child mortality to date mean that “10,000 less children” die every day. Surely, this is a feat to be proud of – substantial proof that real life-saving progress and better outcomes are possible.