Government, civil society must unite for child survival

Pg 11. Tuesday Feb. 05/08

By: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

THE 2008 State of the World’s Children report, released by UNICEF late last month, has shown that up to half of the world’s under five deaths are caused by undernutrition.
It noted that 26,000 children under five, the world over, died mostly from preventable causes and nearly all of these children lived in the developing world, of which 60 countries, including Ghana, were the worse affected.
"The report described the impact of simple and affordable, life-saving measures, such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunisation, insecticide treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation," as key to achieving child survival across the world.
The report observed that more than one third of these children died during the first month of their lives, usually at home, and without access to essential health services and basic commodities that might save their lives.
Of particular significance in the report, however, is new data showing that deaths worldwide are at a record below 9.7 million per year - down from almost 13 million in 1990.
Most of these children were said to die before their 5th birthday, due to unsafe water, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene, with some of them succumbing to respiratory or diarrhoea infections.
Meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4), which aimed at ‘reducing by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under five’ had become a challenge, especially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which the report described as being the “furthest behind on almost all of the health-related MDGs”.
According to the report, “if current trends continued, 4.3 million child deaths will occur in 2015 which could have been averted had MDG 4 been met”.
Child survival matters, according to UNICEF, which deprive infants and young children of basic health care and deny them the nutrients needed for growth and development, set them up to fail in life.
However, it said when children were well nourished, cared for and provided with safe and stimulating environment, they were more likely to survive to have less disease and fewer illnesses, and to fully develop thinking, language, emotional and social skills.
Children who have all the basic health care, when they entered school according to the report, were more likely to succeed, and later in life, they had a greater chance of becoming creative and productive members of society.
According to experts, improving nutrition and achieving MDG 1, which aimed at reducing poverty and hunger, would help avert child deaths from diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, HIV and measles as well as neo-natal and child mortality.
The report focused on Ghana. Bridging the urban-rural divide in terms of scaling up safe water, adequate sanitation and improved hygiene practices, saying that among the largest disparities in safe water and basic sanitation were those between urban and rural populations.
Globally, access to improved drinking water sources is 95 per cent in urban areas compared with 73 per cent in rural areas. The report stated that the urban-rural divide in drinking water was at its widest in sub-Saharan Africa, where 81 per cent of the people in urban areas were served compared with 41 per cent in rural areas.
In Ghana, the report indicated that coverage of rural water and sanitation was, until recently, behind the average for sub-Saharan Africa, but was currently expanding at a rate of about 200,000 people, or more than one per cent of the population a year.
The report said the change had been dramatic and reflected a sweeping reform programme introduced by the government in the early 1990s in order to address the inefficiencies of a top-down system that was unresponsive and failed to deliver, especially in rural areas.
It said Ghana’s participatory approach of involving local governments and communities in water delivery had resulted in a dramatic increase in access to water, from 55 per cent in 1990 to 75 per cent in 2004, and access was currently accelerating.
The report underscored the fact that achieving the MDG goals will result in hundreds of millions of children and men and women being relieved of hunger, utilising safe water and basic sanitation, as well as obtaining education and enjoying the same economic advantages and political opportunities that were available to others.
It said although several regions and countries were lagging behind, the targets were all reachable in the time remaining if the political will, the necessary resources and the required strategies were put in place.
The MDGs, according to the report, could be met in full and on time only if governments, donors, civil society and other stakeholders united for child survival and committed themselves to ensuring that the health-related objectives were met.

• These kids who are having fun need to have all the basic amenities to enable them have a healthy growth. It is in line with this that the achievement of the MDGs which among others will help the children to develop their full potentials, is esential to child survival.