Millenium Dev't Goal #4

Millenium Development Goal #4: Reduce Child Mortality

What is Child Mortality?

* also known as under-5 mortality, refers to the death of infants and children under the age of five. In 2012, 6.6 million, 2011, 6.9 million children under five died, down from 7.6 million in 2010, 8.1 million in 2009, and 12.4 million in 1990. About half of child deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Reduction of child mortality is the fourth of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

* Child Mortality Rate is the highest in low-income countries, such as most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. A child's death is emotionally and physically damaging for the mourning parents. Many deaths in the third world go unnoticed since many poor families cannot afford to register their babies in the government registry.

Target 4.A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

* 6.6 million children under five died in 2012. Almost 75% of all child deaths are attributable to just six conditions: neonatal causes, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, and HIV/AIDS. The aim is to further cut child mortality by two thirds by 2015 from the 1990 level.

* Reaching the MDG on reducing child mortality will require universal coverage with key effective, affordable interventions: care for newborns and their mothers; infant and young child feeding; vaccines; prevention and case management of pneumonia, diarrhoea and sepsis; malaria control; and prevention and care of HIV/AIDS. In countries with high mortality, these interventions could reduce the number of deaths by more than half.

Child survival lies at the heart of everything UNICEF does.

About 29,000 children under the age of five –  21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes.

More than 70 per cent of almost 11 million child deaths every year are attributable to six causes: diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth....