It felt strange to be celebrating last September when a press release landed in my inbox from UNICEF, proclaiming that there were just 8.8 million deaths amongst children under five in 2008.
At an individual level, every child’s death is a tragedy. That’s 8.8 million kids who won’t get to go to school, to play with friends or tease their siblings. That’s 8.8 million families wracked by the trauma of losing a child.
But, at a global level, it was good news. It’s good news because we’ve seen increasing numbers of births alongside decreasing numbers of deaths, not just in the last decade, but for most of the last sixty years.
You might recall a TV advertisement for Make Poverty History back in 2005 in which celebrities clicked their fingers, in recognition of the fact that a child died once every three seconds from preventable causes.
Well, that ad wouldn’t work anymore. 8.8 million deaths a year works out as one death every 3.6 seconds … or rounded up, once every 4 seconds. Falling at an average rate since 2000 of 2.3%, 1.6 million fewer kids died in 2008 than in 2000.
Countries all over the world are bringing down child mortality by increasing the number of kids immunised against diseases like Polio and Measles, making sure that more kids drink clean water so they don’t get diarrhoea, and making it easier and more affordable for even the poorest to see a doctor or nurse when their kids are sick.
We’ve built great momentum in reducing child deaths in recent years, not just reducing deaths, but reducing them more quickly. In the below clip, Hans Rosling from Gapminder explains how Tanzania is dropping child deaths faster than a country like Sweden ever did.
Poor beats rich in MDG race from Gapminder Foundation on Vimeo.
As we look towards the next decade, there’s still much to do. The vast majority of the remaining 8.8 million deaths are preventable. As a planet, we’re going to need to work smarter and harder to achieve the millennium development goal of reducing child deaths by 2/3 between 1990 and 2015.
To do this, we need to support the governments of poor countries to build strong health care systems that reach into even the poorest and most remote communities. This involves making sure that governments can pay for the essentials like nurses, health clinics and doctors. And, it involves them being able to make the infrastructure investments that improve health – water and sanitation systems, electricity, and communications networks. To afford this, these countries will need to prioritise health in their budgets, and in part, they’ll need to use foreign aid - which will comes largely from our governments.
And, if our governments are to make these investments with our taxes, they need our permission. As we emerge from the worst economic period since the Great Depression, our governments are looking to cut costs – and cutting money to kids in other countries is an easy option. So, if you care about seeing fewer kids die, make a commitment, tell your MP that you care, and ask what they’re doing to see it happen. |
Design by 
