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Nearly 50 million lives saved since 2000; millions more
can be saved by 2030: UNICEF report
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NEW YORK, 9 September 2015 - The rate of decline in mortality among the world’s youngest
children has more than doubled over a generation, and an additional 38 million lives could be saved
by 2030 if progress accelerates further, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
world leaders are set to approve later this month.
Data from UNICEF’s “A Promise Renewed: 2015 Progress Report” show that since 2000, when
governments committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the lives of 48
million children under the age of five have been saved. This remarkable progress is the result of
sustained action by leaders – to make saving children’s lives a policy and a political priority, to
improve and use data about child survival, and to scale up proven interventions.
The number of children who die from mostly preventable causes before they turn five now stands at
5.9 million a year – a 53 per cent drop since 1990. At 3.9 percent the global annual rate of
reduction of under-five mortality between 2000 and 2015 was more than twice as high as what it
was in the 1990s.
Some of the world’s poorest countries have demonstrated that substantial reductions in child
mortality can be achieved despite formidable obstacles:
- 24 out of 81 low- and lower-middle income countries, including Cambodia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh
and Uganda, achieved the MDG of reducing the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds or
more.[1]
- Between 2000 and 2015, twenty-one sub-Saharan African countries reversed a rising mortality
trend or at least tripled their pace of progress compared to the 1990s.
“Saving the lives of millions of children in urban and rural settings, in wealthy and poor countries, is
one of the first great achievements of the new millennium -- and one of the biggest challenges of
the next 15 years is to further accelerate this progress” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director
Yoka Brandt. “The data tell us that millions of children do not have to die -- if we focus greater
effort on reaching every child.”
Simple, high-impact, cost effective solutions that contributed to this dramatic reduction of underfive deaths include skilled antenatal, delivery and postnatal care; breastfeeding; immunization;
[1] Low income countries are: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal,
Niger, Rwanda, Uganda, and the United Republic of Tanzania. Lower-middle income countries are: Armenia,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan;
Nicaragua; Timor-Leste; Yemen.
insecticide-treated mosquito nets; improved water and sanitation; oral rehydration therapy for
diarrhoea; antibiotics for pneumonia; nutritional supplements and therapeutic foods.
Despite this impressive progress, the world has not met the MDG target of reducing under-five
mortality by two-thirds.
Between 1990 and the end of 2015, an estimated 236 million children will have died from mostly
preventable causes before turning five. Today, leading causes of under-five deaths include
prematurity; pneumonia; complications during labour and delivery; diarrhoea; and malaria. Undernutrition contributes to nearly half of all under-five deaths.
The SDGs challenge countries to significantly increase their efforts to bring rates of under-five
mortality down to 25 deaths (or fewer) per 1,000 live births by 2030. By picking up the pace,
especially in countries that are lagging, the world stands to save the lives of 38 million more
children under the age of five.
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Note to editors:
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Download the report here
About A Promise Renewed
Since its initiation in 2012, A Promise Renewed has focused on promoting the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) 4 of reducing the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990
and 2015, and continuing the effort until no child or mother dies from preventable causes. The
vision and principles advocated by A Promise Renewed – political commitment, accountability and
social mobilization to end preventable child deaths in all countries within a generation – are to be
taken up in the Sustainable Development Goals to be launched later this month.
Partners that support A Promise Renewed have committed to five priority actions:
1. Increasing efforts in the countries facing the greatest challenges on under-five mortality;
2. Scaling up access to underserved populations everywhere;
3. Addressing the causes that account for the majority of under-five deaths;
4. Increasing emphasis on the underlying drivers of child mortality, such as women’s education
and empowerment;
5. Rallying around a shared goal and using common metrics to track progress.
About UNICEF
UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our
partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical
action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit
of all children, everywhere. For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org
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For further information please contact:
Kate Donovan, UNICEF New York, +1917 378 2128, kdonovan@unicef.org
Rita Ann Wallace, UNICEF New York, +1917 213-4034, rwallace@unicef.org