The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has issued its annual progress report on ending preventable deaths of children aged under five, observing that at the current rate of progress, targeted reductions in child mortality will not be reached by 2015.
The target to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 is established under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
13 September 2013: The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued its annual progress report on ending preventable deaths of children aged under five, observing that at the current rate of progress, targeted reductions in child mortality will not be reached by 2015. The target to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 is established under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The 2013 progress report, ‘Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed,’ finds that that child deaths were halved between 1990 and 2012, and estimates that a two-thirds reduction could be reached by 2028. The progress report identifies preventable diseases as the leading causes of under-five deaths, including pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia together account for four out of every five child deaths. The report praises the progress of some countries, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Nepal, Timor-Leste and Tanzania, in reducing their national under-five mortality rates by two-thirds or more. It calls for special efforts in Sub-Saharan, West and Central Africa, where little progress has been made.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake has called for greater urgency in promoting child survival, stressing that dramatic reductions in under-five mortality are possible.
UNICEF highlighted the call to action that the Governments of Ethiopia, India and the US launched in 2012, ‘Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed,’ which has drawn 176 governments to pledge national actions to advance the UN Secretary-General’s ‘Every Woman, Every Child’ initiative for accelerating reductions in preventable maternal newborn and child deaths.
Other UNICEF actions to address the child mortality target include: a Global Vaccine Action Plan towards universal access to immunization by 2020, a Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhea undertaken with the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative with WHO, the World Bank and partners to prevent undernutrition. [Publication: Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed] [UN Press Release] [UNICEF Press Release]