Cutting the numbers of young children dying by two-thirds
Child Mortality Factsheet (170
kb)
In some poor countries, one child in 11 dies before its fifth birthday - that’s more than
ten times the rate of children dying every year in wealthy countries like the UK.
Nearly 11 million young children die each year, mostly from preventable illnesses such as diarrhoea and malaria. They could be saved by better nutrition, care and medical treatment. That’s why one of the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce the mortality rate
of under-fives by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.
Worldwide, the proportion of children under the age of five dying has fallen by nearly 20% in the last two decades. But despite progress in some regions, rates in many poorer countries remain high. On current trends,
the mortality rates for under-fives are estimated to drop by less than a quarter by 2015.
Progress is slowest in Sub-Saharan Africa, where death rates have actually gone up in some countries between 1990 and 2000. Armed conflicts, growing populations, a lack of investment in health services and the spread of HIV /AIDS are all contributing to this situation, with a number of countries now experiencing more than 200 deaths
in children under five per 1,000 live births.
To help tackle the problem, we’re working with a number of partners to boost access to healthcare. For example, in Tanzania we’re supporting a US$12 million
insecticide treated net programme, which should stop 40,000 children a year dying from malaria.
Together with agencies such as
 UNICEF and the
World
Health Organisation (WHO), we’re also working
with countries to increase access to basic health services and improve some of the other factors that
affect health, such as water, sanitation and female education.
The new International Health Partnership is an agreement with donors,
funding agencies and developing countries that aims to accelerate progress
towards meeting the health MDGs as part of a renewed ongoing high-level global
commitment
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Last updated: 04 September 2007
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