Global Poverty Info Bank

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Today, more than 21,000 children will die from a preventable cause. It has different names – malnutrition, diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, and HIV/AIDS – but the cause is the same: poverty.

 

Millions of children, particularly in Africa and Asia, lack access to proper nutrition, health-care services, education, clean water, sanitation and adequate shelter. They are also vulnerable to the worst forms of child labour, trafficking, armed conflict, slavery and sexual exploitation. Because poverty tends to be intergenerational, focusing on children’s rights and reducing child poverty is important in breaking the cycle of poverty for future generations.

Child mortality is closely linked to poverty. Advances in infant and child survival have come more slowly in poor countries and also to the poorest people in wealthier countries. Improvements in public health services are essential, including safe water and better sanitation. Education, especially for girls and mothers, will also save children's lives.  Improvements in income help, but little will be achieved unless a greater effort is made to ensure that services to improve child health reach those who need them most. 

 

 

In 2011,  million children born alive across the world died before their fifth birthday, a total of 1 in 6¹. Most of these children lived in developing countries and died from a disease or a combination of diseases that could easily have been prevented or treated; for example, pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics and diarrhoea can be treated with a simple mix of water, salt and sugar. 

Malnutrition contributes to over a third of these deaths and is also responsible for impaired intellectual development, hindering children’s prospects for the future. Nutrient supplements and encouraging breastfeeding in women strengthens children and is also one of the most effective ways of reducing their vulnerability to disease. Expanding educational opportunities to mothers is also essential for improving children’s survival and development. Educated women are less likely to die in childbirth and more likely to provide adequate nutrition and sanitation to their children and send them to school.

 

“One in six children in Sub-Saharan Africa dies before their fifth birthday”

 

2 million children under five die of diarrhoea each year and one child dies every 5 seconds as a result of hunger, contributing to over 60% of all child deaths². In today’s world with such extremes of wealth, one wonders why we are faced with such horrific figures. Although much is being done to combat these gross numbers, a greater effort is required to eradicate these problems. 

 

 

Despite a 21% decrease overall in the developing world between 1990 and 2006, malnutrition affects 26% of children under five (and as much as 46% in Southern Asia). The cause of a third of under-five deaths, malnutrition makes it very difficult for a child to fend off disease.

 

Children and the MDGs

 

 

The Mlillenium Goals set out to reduce child deaths among the world's poorest communities. The global rate to be reached by 2015 is 31 per 1,000 live births. Close to 60 per cent of countries have already reduced child mortality to this level and most countries (130) are on track to achieve MDG 4, but we are still faced by many challenges.

 

Existing low-cost, low technology and high impact interventions such as vaccines, antibiotics, micronutrient supplementation, insecticide-treated bednets, improved breastfeeding practices and adoption of safe hygiene practices can prevent unnecessary maternal and child deaths and reduce under nutrition.

 

By packaging services and implementing at scale, high impact and evidence-based maternal, newborn and child survival interventions, we can save millions of lives. By ensuring that all children have access to basic education and by focusing on children marginalized by poverty, HIV/AIDS, conflict and discrimination, we can break the cycle of poverty that keeps children on the brink of survival.

 

What are we doing?

 

Through community outreach, supervision, training, and data collection and monitoring, massive immunisation campaigns have reached vast numbers of children. Immunisation is critically important to the developing world as preventable diseases have an enormous impact on many communities.  UNICEF has helped Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan train female volunteers to administer polio vaccines and promote immunisation against maternal and child tetanus.

Many countries and organisations have been putting forward funds through aid in many areas they believe need the most help.  Recently Japan has donated $3.7 million to help eradicate polio in Egypt and the European Commission donated 10 million pounds to the UN for the relief of Zimbabwean children.

 

  

 

Case Study: Malawi

 

A Global Poverty Project volunteer recently arrived back from a six month stay in Africa. This following story is from Malawi in eastern Africa.

Taking some time out, I headed to the local orphanage with two other people I was travelling with and some local men from the community.  Walking down the street, I soon had two little hands on each of mine. Introducing myself and saying “G’day,” I found out these guys were some of the orphans we were about to visit.  Playing the usual guessing game, I said to them both, “Now how old are you? Four? Five?” Usually I was right and would tell them how old and big they were. One boy said “Four,” and the other ... “Ten.” He was tiny. Shocked at his size, I bit my tongue and thought of how I could turn his answer into something funny. I was soon shocked again. He wouldn’t and couldn’t smile. Making it to the orphanage we had a look around, and soon I was back out with the children, playing catch and teaching the Hokey Pokey. I was soon again drawn to the little boy I had met on the road. Standing aside and not wanting to join in, I asked the teacher what was wrong with him?  The teacher said, “This boy is just disappointed and ashamed in himself.”

“Why?” I asked

“Because of whom he is, and he has HIV."

 

 

I was speechless.  Trying again, with desperate measures I put my sunglasses on his small head and also tried passing the ball to him.  But it would just hit his stomach and fall.  He wasn’t even a challenge like many other Africans, who ended up coming round. He was sadly impossible and out of this world. He was robbed of his childhood; he had no childhood. No home. No family and no friends. All had been lost years before and he was the last face left in his entire family.

 

Hawa Ndilowe, Malawi's ambassador to the United States explains the efforts that the country has undertaken to decrease child mortality rates. Ambassador Ndilowe remains hopeful that Malawi will get a handle on child mortality by having a National Health plan and a clear direction and knowing what is required.  Ndilowe says, “What is important is to know the problem and address it.”

 

 

 

Achievements

 

 

Substantial progress has been made towards reducing child mortality (Millennium Development Goal 4). In 2009 nearly 12,000 fewer children died every day than in 1990. Through community outreach, training and monitoring, large-scale immunisation campaigns have reached vast numbers of children and combated several major childhood diseases. Polio is close to eradication and child deaths from measles declined by 74 per cent globally between 2000 and 2007.

 

 

“Children and women can be our Trojan Horse for attacking the citadel of poverty”

-James P. Grant, former Executive Director, UNICEF