Skip to content

Chief Executives Board

Sections
Personal tools
 

Reducing child mortality

Document Actions
One United Nations (Ch 2, para 50)

50.      The Millennium Declaration committed countries to reducing by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under the age of five. Various organizations of the system have launched important initiatives in this field, working with non-UN partners. These initiatives encompass child immunization, improving child health in the home, child survival and healthy newborns. Over the years, UN organizations have scored major successes in immunizing children and reducing child mortality. An inter-agency working group involving UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank focuses on household and community IMCI (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness). Another multi-agency initiative, the Child Survival Partnership (CSP), formed in 2004, aims at providing a forum for coordinated action to address the main conditions that affect children's health. CSP enables governments and partners to agree on consistent approaches and stimulates concerted efforts towards their implementation. The Healthy Newborn Partnership, an inter-agency group formed in 2000, promotes attention and action to improve newborn health and survival. It also provides a forum for information exchanges on programmatic, research, training and communication issues. The Partnership collaborates actively with other groups working on related objectives, such as the Inter-Agency Group for Safe Motherhood.

One United Nations (Box 2.13)
Box 2.13: Reducing child mortality through immunization
Outstanding progress has been made towards eradicating polio, reducing measles mortality and eliminating maternal and neo-natal tetanus, through such innovative partnerships as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the Measles Initiative and the Global Partnership for Eliminating Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus. Worldwide, 784 children were paralyzed by polio in 2003, down from an estimated 350,000 in 1988; the number of endemic countries has declined from more than 125 to six. From 1999 to 2002, measles deaths decreased by 30 percent globally, with a 35 percent reduction in Africa. The number of neonatal tetanus deaths came down from 800,000 worldwide in the 1980s to 180,000 in 2002. By the end of 2005, maternal and neonatal tetanus will be eliminated in 12 of the 57 high-risk countries, with 13 more high-risk countries close to achieving this goal.

With the launch of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in 2000, more than 500,000 lives are expected to be saved. The Alliance has enabled 40 of the world's poorest countries to immunize for the first time 35.5 million children against hepatitis B. Six million children have been vaccinated against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and 2.7 million children against yellow fever.

Challenges remain, however, and WHO is working with UNICEF to develop a new global immunization strategy (Global Immunization Vision and Strategy-GIVS). The strategy concentrates on four main priorities for protecting more people in a changing world: introducing new vaccines and technologies, linking vaccination with other interventions, increasing synergy between immunization programmes and health systems, and addressing immunization challenges in the context of global interdependence.
 
Terms of Use Privacy Policy Copyright Notice Credits RSS