Goal #4Child Health
Introduction
One of the darkest characteristics of poverty is that is seems to prey on the vulnerable and defenceless. In low-income countries, one out of every 10 children dies before the age of five. In wealthier nations, this number is only one out of 143.
The Targets
Goal 4 of the Millennium Development Goals sets out by the year 2015 to:
- Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
Did You Know?
- In our world today nearly 11 million children under the age of 5 die in the world every year – well over 1,200 every hour most from easly preventable or treatable causes. (Source:Why do the Millennium Development Goals matter? Brochure)
Achieving the Goals
With the help of donor aid and UN organizations, the Eritrean government commenced an aggressive approach to reducing child mortality increasing the number of children vaccinated from 9.6% in 1991 to 76% in 2002.
The Eritrean government used the method of Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), a holistic way of looking at the life of infants and young children. Over 500 additional health workers were trained in IMCI methods to both prevent and cure diseases, focusing on the well-being of the entire child. In addition, they launched an aggressive vaccination campaign.
Even with this rapid progress, the government is not content. “We need to work very hard to reduce it even more,” said Zemui Alemu, director of the Family and Community Health Division at the Eritrean Ministry of Health.
Goal News
New Analysis Reveals African Countries Top List of 20 Countries Making Most Overall Progress on MDGs
As G-8 and G-20 leaders prepare to gather in Canada, new analysis issued by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the United Nations Millennium Campaign finds that, in absolute terms, many of the world’s poorest countries are making the most overall progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the set of promises world leaders made to significantly reduce extreme poverty, illiteracy and disease by 2015.
Bhubaneswar (Women’s Feature Service) – In her ninth month of pregnancy, Laxmi Bhatra from Orissa’s Anchala village in the tribal dominated Kosagumuda block of Nawrangpur district, suddenly felt unwell. On seeing his wife’s condition, Kamlochan, a landless worker, got on to his bicycle, tied a hapless Laxmi loosely to him, and peddled 15 kilometres along a hilly pathway to a six-bed health facility. When he got there, instead of admitting the visibly suffering woman, the local doctor gave her some medication and sent her home.
Portuguese actress and TV presenter Catarina Furtado is UNFPA ambassador. After travelling extensively through Africa, Catarina has always found “deep injustice and social inequalities”. Guinea-Bissau is the country that, in her view, best represents “total injustice” – and it’s precisely in that country that she is currently contributing for a project on child mortality and maternal health.
