Promise4Children –“Child Survival Call to Action” Convenes:

Posted on 15 June 2012 at 00:06

Washington hosted conference bringing together multitude of governments, civil society and multinational organizations as UNICEF in a high-level forum convened to launch a sustained, global effort to save children’s lives. 40 years has witnessed considerable success – child mortality has been reduced by 50% due to new vaccines, improved health care practices, investments in education, and the dedication of governments, civil society and other partners, according to UNICEF Press Release. Still, millions of children – most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – die every year from largely preventable causes before reaching their fifth birthdays. In 2010, this translated to 57 children dying for every 1,000 live births. See our Blog for Film “7 Million Lives to Save”

The Call to Action challenges the world to reduce child mortality to 20 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births in every country by 2035. Reaching this historic target will save an additional 45 million children’s lives by 2035, bringing the world closer to the ultimate goal of ending preventable child deaths. See our Blog for Film –“Saving Infant Lives – Immunization”

Modelling shows that this goal can be reached by greater effort across five key areas:

1. Geography: Increasing efforts in the 24 countries that account for 80 percent of under-five deaths.
2. High Burden Populations: Focusing country health systems on scaling-up access for underserved populations, to include rural and low income groups
3. High Impact Solutions: Addressing the five causes that account for nearly 60 per cent of child deaths: pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, pre-term births and intrapartum (around the time of childbirth)
4. Education for Women and Girls: Investing beyond health programs to include educating girls, empowering women, and promoting inclusive economic growth
5. Mutual Accountability: Unifying around a shared goal and using common metrics to track progress