A new UNICEF report shows that if current trends continue, the world will not meet Millennium Development Goal 4 – to cut the rate of under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015. Worse, if current trends continue, the goal will not be reached until 2028. The cost of inaction is alarmingly high: as many as 35 million more children could die mostly from preventable causes between 2015 and 2028, if the global community does not take immediate action to accelerate progress.
That is the bad news. But the report provides many points of good news as well. It demonstrates that dramatic improvements in child survival are possible. Globally, the annual number of under-five deaths fell from an estimated 12.6 million in 1990 to approximately 6.6 million in 2012. Over the past 22 years, the world saved around ninety million lives that might otherwise have been lost.
“Yes, we should celebrate the progress,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. “But how can we celebrate when there is so much more to do before we reach the goal? And we can speed up the progress – we know how, but we need to act with a renewed sense of urgency,” he said. Continue reading
Child Health Uganda 